Time for change
by shadow343434
Summary: Avery cutter is the adopted daughter of Nick and Helen Cutter. What happens when the past come backs and new surprises have arisen. Slightly Au as some characters may not die. Set at the start of primeval season one. I will write my disclaimer here: I do not own Primeval or any of its characters. I only own my OC.
1. Chapter 1- Hoax?

Chapter 1- hoax?

 **This is a very new story much better than my other ones as I know how to write these kind of stories. But please read and review as your comments will make me upload faster.**

* * *

Avery walked into the room just as her father got ready to leave. Her father's laboratory technician stood in the middle of the room trying to stop a black haired boy from touching the saber-tooth fossil. She thought he was cute but she currently had a boyfriend at the moment. Avery didn't tell her dad though, he never liked her having anything to do with the opposite sex.

Avery Cutter was adopted but that made no difference her father loved her no different.

"Annd, where are we going?" Avery asked standing next to her father who was packing a bag.

"We are not going anywhere. You are staying here until we get back." Nick told her as he started to head out the door. He brushed past his daughter and walked towards Stephen. She turned around and stared at her father.

"I am going where you are going. There's no way you are leaving me behind again. So where are we going?" Avery had a Scottish accent like her fathers, which tended to deepen when she was really excited. She knew that her father would be gone for a while as he was packing some spare shirts into his pack.

"We're going to check out a monster in the forest of dean before the government tries to cover it up." The black haired boy told her excitedly. His eyes gleamed, making Avery believe that he was excited by the weird and unknown. It also made her believe that he was a conspiracy nut.

"Okay… who are you?" Avery said crossing her arms behind her back. She stole a glance to Stephen who stood there with a smirk on his face. _So I guess that he is telling the truth about where we are going, oh boy._ Avery thought turning back to the black haired boy in front of her.

"Connor temple, and you are?" he replied to her earlier question.

"Avery Cutter." Avery looked Connor up and down taking in his appearance. He was an inch or two smaller than her dad, with pale skin and gleaming brown eyes. In one word he looked… innocent.

"Okay I'm all set let's go." Nick said from the top of the stairs. He had his bag slung over his back and a look on his face Avery could not interpret.

* * *

"I'd just finished my rounds when I caught a glimpse of it on the monitor." The Guard told them as they checked out the damaged truck. There were deep gashes in its side that looked like claw marks, but they were too big to be done by any predator.

"Why are we here Stephen?" Avery grabbed his arm and they fell behind the others. "I know dad wouldn't just check out a sighting like this on a whim."

Stephen knew better than to try and lie to Avery. She was too similar to her dad as they gave the same piercing look that could easily make you crumble.

"Where here because Cutter thinks he might find some clues as to why Helen disappeared."

"Mum disappeared 8 years ago. I want to find her as much as you and dad want to, but this isn't the answer." Helen wasn't Avery's mother by birth, but she was in her life for a long as she could remember. Helen never resented her and treated her as her own daughter.

"This is a Goose chase, there is nothing here." Avery said trying to convince him. They once came to the forest of dean a year ago for a sighting similar to this one, but that was a hoax set up by a couple of the students Nick failed.

"That may be true, but we can still give it a look." She let his arm go and they walked forward.

"Can you imagine how much force it took to rip this thing open? If you want my opinion, I think it's…" Connor trailed off as Stephen picked up a dead chicken while Nick and Avery gave him an amused look. "You don't, do you?"

Stephen walked over to the truck and examined the gashes. "Well, if I found these gouges in the wild, I'd be certain we were looking for a large predator."

"But we're in the forest of Dean." Nick said. He walked towards the forest as the guard talks about what he saw. Avery followed and saw something that was very hard to fake.

"Well, there's blood." Stephen thought that the blood belonged to the chicken. It would be easy to fake that the blood came from an animal.

"Stephen. Come and give me a logical explanation for this." Nick said over his shoulder as he stared at the fence that separated the lot from the forest.

"It's a hoax, obviously." Stephen catches up to Nick and stops as he too sees the twisted metal fence. Connor stops behind them.

"Or not." Avery mutters.

"Just a difficult one to pull off." Stephen says skeptically. He shares a confused look with Avery before they looked ahead.

"Can I Say something?" Connor asks.

Nick ignores him and walked closer to the fence leaving them behind.

"Is he alright?" He asks staring at the professor who walked in a daze.

Stephen told him about Helen. "Helen Cutter came to this area eight years ago to investigate a creature sighting. She disappeared in the forest."

"The body was never found. Just a rucksack. No blood, no clues, nothing. She just vanished." Avery continued in a blank voice. She held back tears refusing to look at any of them. She walked forward towards her father and held his hand.

Nick smiled at her before taking a deep breath. Maybe they will find something now.


	2. Chapter 2-Tortoise?

**Thanks for those who have been reading my story. Here is another chapter a bit longer than my last one.**

* * *

Avery sat beside her dad, drinking a glass of water. Nick was looking at a picture of Helen in his wallet when a dark red haired women came over.

"Excuse me." She said catching the professor's attention. Nick turned towards her and when he did the woman kissed him. Avery stared opened mouthed at the woman before steadying herself.

"Don't panic." The woman explained. "I just told that slime ball over there you were my boyfriend. One more sleazy chat-up line and I was going to have to kill him."

"I know how that feels." Avery said giving her a warm smile. She turned her head and glared at the man the woman had just left. He was still staring at Claudia. His gaze turned towards Avery then he quickly looked away.

Nick gave his daughter a look, sending her a silent message that they would talk later. "Well, I'm very glad I was here to help. Uh, I'm Nick and this is my daughter Avery." He said turning towards the woman.

"Actually, I know who both of you are. Claudia brown, Home office." Claudia said her tone suddenly turning professional but with a tone that suggested you could talk to her. _Oh she is good_ Avery thought giving Claudia a knowing smirk.

"I saw you at the Hotel. I'm hoping you can do me a favor Professor." She said more as a statement than a question.

"Another one?"

"I suspect this is why we're here?" Claudia takes a white envelop out of her bag and shows the duo the picture that had been in the newspaper.

"We get dozens of rogue animal sightings every year. You'd be doing me a great favor if you could just confirm all this nonsense." Claudia continued slightly hoping her statement was true.

Her hope was short lived however when Nick said "I can't dismiss the evidence out of hand."

"Surely you're not giving this whole monster story credibility?"

"We're just trying to keep an open mind." Avery interjected. She did not want to believe in monster stories as well but like she said she could not dismiss the evidence.

"People always say that as though it's such a good thing." Claudia said looking over at Avery.

Nick tried to explain their views on the sighting. "Well, you see, that depends on how you define 'monster'. A wild panther might look pretty terrifying on a dark night."

"Is that what we're dealing with?" Claudia said.

"My best guess, if it exists at all. The last sighting was somewhere near the forest. Would you care to join the search?"

"I suppose I owe it to the Taxpayer to do more than sit in my room and suck the mini bar dry." Claudia said seeing that the two were not just a couple of people trying to prove a conspiracy. They were the worst to deal with at it took a lot to stop them going to the press if something was indeed found.

Claudia got up and led the way outside.

"Let's get going." Nick said turning towards his daughter.

"What?" He said noticing the smirk on her face.

"Oh, nothing. You're right let's go." Avery said finishing her drink in one go. They got up and headed towards the car.

* * *

Stephen and Connor waited at the 4x4 outside the hotel for the Professor. Connor was on his laptop showing Stephen his database.

"This database contains constantly updated information on all extinct creatures. I've been building it every spare second since I was 14." Connor told him scrolling through a number of pictures.

"It's impressive." Stephen agreed. He also wondered what this boy did during his spare time.

"It's pretty cool, huh." Connor was happy Stephen liked it.

"And slightly sad." Stephen added.

Connor looked up from his laptop ignoring Stephen's last statement. "You know we're not talking about a wild cat, don't you?"

Nick and Claudia arrived before Stephen could respond. "This is Claudia Brown from the Home Office. She'll be coming with us." Nick introduced.

"I knew it. It's a cover-up." Connor said to Stephen.

Claudia apparently heard the statement. "What's he talking about?"

"Connor never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like." Nick smiled when Claudia sent him an exasperated look.

Stephen, Avery, Claudia, Nick and Connor are travelling towards the forest were the creature was sighted last. Stephen had a map while Connor looked at his compass.

"If there really were some creature around here, wouldn't the journalists have found it by now?" Claudia asked still skeptical about the case.

"They wouldn't know what they were looking for." Nick said as they ducked under some low hanging branches. Avery walked next to them listening attentively. She often liked hiking but the forest of dean would not have been on her most wanted list.

"But you do?" Avery could hear the disbelief in her voice.

"Hmm. I've seen Stephen track a wounded animal through the rainforest for up to 10 days at a time." Nick told her taking pride in his friend's skill.

"Not to mention wrestle an anaconda and save a whale." Connor added lightheartedly Connor moved forward until he was walking with Stephen. Avery smiled, she started to like the student more and more.

"Maybe there is something here, and maybe there isn't. Frankly, I doubt it." Nick said telling the facts for what they were. He didn't believe in lying to make something seem more real.

"Cutter!" Stephen called out stopping underneath a tree.

Avery rushed over, her father and Claudia following. She saw a large tree, its branches surprisingly bare. A Cow hung upon a couple of its branches like a present to whoever stumbled upon it. She knew some types of big cats liked to drag their prey up into trees but the cow was too large to be dragged up by any type of species.

"Okay, now I'm getting interested." Nick said looking around.

He looked towards Connor when he said the compass was going haywire. Connor passed the compass to Nick, who saw that the compass needle was spinning around madly.

"Rex!" The group heard a woman scream.

They ran towards the noise and saw a white-haired woman standing in front of some large creature.

"Don't move." Nick said coming to a stop next to her.

"Is it real?" The girl asked him.

"Some kind of experiment, maybe. Hybrid, throwback." He said throwing ideas out seeing if one of them could explain what he saw in front of him.

"Who are you?" He asks the girl briefly looking away from the creature.

"Abby Maitland. I'm a keeper at Wellington Zoo." She told him meeting his gaze. She looked around at the others he had with him wondering what they were doing here.

Nick and Avery approached the animal, shining their torches on him.

Nick looked at the creature and tried to explain what he saw. "It's a reptile. Five or six tonnes at least. Large supratemporal bosses. Huge oesteoderms on its back."

Stephen and Connor started to approach as well being careful to stay behind the professor.

"It must be some kind of anapsid." Avery added. This creature was massive and she had a feeling she had seen something similar before.

"A tortoise?" Abby was skeptical as she had never seen a tortoise as big as this before. In fact there were hardly any reptiles that could reach this stature.

The reptile roars startling the group. As the creature shifted around Nick backs up, as do Stephen, Connor and Claudia.

"Stay in his field of vision, you're making him nervous." Abby told them her reptile training kicking in. It may be big but reptiles tended to act the same.

"I was right. It was a dinosaur in that warehouse." Connor said.

He took a picture but the phone was quickly taken by Claudia. "Whatever it is, it's classified until I figure out what the hell to do about it."

Nick looks around and notices a small shape coming out of the brush. He shines his torch on it as he and Stephen crouch down to get a better look.

"Bloody hell, there's two of them." Stephen exclaimed looking towards the others behind them.

"Where did that come from?" Nick asked turning towards Stephen. This was turning out to be very interesting.


	3. Chapter 3- rex

Chapter 3- secrecy

 **Thanks for those who are reading my story. I hope I get some good reviews soon so I can improve this story. I don't have a beta tester so any mistakes are my own.**

 **I've reloaded this chapter as a problem came up. Thank you s, who helped me to identify this problem.**

Avery sat next to Stephen on the forest floor watching the tortoise like creature. They sat against a tree with rex resting on her lap. Connor was going on about how it would win him a Nobel Prize. Avery didn't put much faith in that statement, Claudia would have been trying to keep this secret under wraps.

"You don't know what we're dealing with yet." Stephen told him.

"Come on. It looks like a dinosaur. It behaves like a dinosaur. It's a dinosaur, it's the missing link to the ancient past. And I discovered it."

"Actually it's not a dinosaur." Avery mumbled browsing through Connor's database. She found it on her own laptop as they waited for her father.

"What?" Connor said turning to look at her.

"Well, it's more like a scutosaurus from the Permian era." Avery shut her laptop and put it in her bag. She got up and approached the large dinosaur. She stretched an arm out ready to pat the Scutosaurus.

"I don't think that's a great idea." Connor said.

"That won't work. If she has her mind set you can hardly change it. She is Nick's daughter after all." Stephen said getting up. He got ready to jump forward if the Scutosaurus got aggressive.

Avery placed her hand on the creatures shoulder only to snatch her hand back as her father called out.

Nick and the girls came running towards them waving torches. The scutosaurus got scared and started to walk forward. Avery scrambled out of its way.

"Where's it going?" Connor said.

"Let him go! It's scared. Let's see where it thinks it's safe." Nick said in a way of explanation.

They followed the Scutosaurus as it ran through some sort of flickering light.

"Where's it gone?" Claudia said.

"Home." Nick replied.

* * *

The next morning the area around the strange portal was secured by armed forces. Nick had started to refer to it as an anomaly and the group picked up on the name.

Nick and Connor are watching the anomaly, it was obvious that neither had gone home. Soon more soldiers arrive as scientific equipment was loaded out of the jeeps. Abby sat in a pile of it, she hasn't been home either.

Avery sat on the back of a jeep, taking a different look on the anomaly. Large glowing glass like pieces circled the bright center flickering between bright and dim. No one wanted to touch it, just because the scutosaurus could go through doesn't mean something else could.

Connor was playing with a metal pen which started to pull towards the anomaly. Avery watched as Connor lets go of the pen, and it flies into the anomaly.

"That explains the compass going crazy." Connor said.

"What could cause a magnetic field so powerful?" Nick asked staring intensively.

"Maybe it's an alien spaceship." Connor said hopefully.

Avery snorted, causing Nick and Connor to stare at her. She apologized and they looked away. She silently giggled then walked over to the two taking small sips from her cup. Nick and Connor having sculled theirs to try and stay awake.

Avery was more presentable having gone back to the hotel for a quick shower, they had already paid for a room so why not use it. On the way back she picked up coffee for the others and a hot chocolate for herself. She never liked coffee it always tasted so bitter.

Nick and Claudia talked about the creatures. Though Avery and Nick knew they came from the past, like the sarcopterygian found in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Connor was letting something else through the anomaly with a giggle.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant." He said. Then with a grimace he realized that he let his front door key go through the anomaly.

"Cutter, we have to go now." Claudia said. She was trying to get them to go back to the home office so they could explain to Lester about the anomaly.

Nick tried getting out of it wanting to stay at the anomaly a while longer. He lost however and Claudia walked off.

Stephen approached Nick. "You're thinking about Helen, aren't you?" He said.

"It explains everything." Nick said.

"Except why she didn't come back." Stephen walked away leaving Nick to wonder the same thing. He knew Nick was just grasping at straws.

Avery sat in an office beside her dad signing several papers about secrecy. She looked up towards the glass walls. She saw a man approach Claudia and thought that must be the person in charge of Claudia. She looked away however as he looked towards her and focused on the conversation happening beside her.

* * *

A while later they were lead out of the room by the same man, who she now knew was named James Lester. They walked through the home office building through several glass doors.

Avery tuned out the conversation as they walked having already heard Nick's theory on what the anomaly was. She tuned back in as they came to a room where they could view the tests being carried out on Rex.

Nick and Lester stood in front of the glass as Claudia, Abby and Avery stood behind them.

"Suppose this remarkable theory is correct, what are the immediate risks?" Lester said sounding like he didn't think much about Nick. He sounded annoyed by the subject rather than a fascination like the others around him.

"Famine, war, pestilence. The end of the world as we know it. You know, the usual stuff." Nick said sarcastically.

"I think I could do without the facetiousness." Lester defended crossing his arm.

Nick was starting to get annoyed. "Well I could do without standing in some anemic office in Whitehall, talking to a civil service pen pusher, when I should be exploring the most significant phenomenon in the history of science."

"Technically, I'm not actually a civil servant. More a troubleshooter without a portfolio in the PM's office." Lester said. Avery could tell that if you even barked at this man in the wrong way he would bite you back.

"You mean you're a Government hatchet man."

"Colorful, but surprisingly accurate."

"And there's something else you should know. I intend to find out what happened to my wife, whatever the risks, so I'm going through the anomaly, and if you want to stop me, you're going to have to shoot me." Nick said.

"I hope it won't come to that."

Avery turned to look at Rex as they finished talking. He was being examined by a group of people in white suits.

"You really shouldn't handle a lizard like that." Abby told Lester. They were running a scan over Rex who dived under the possible threat.

"Let the experts do their job." Lester said.

"They don't know what they're doing."

One of the scientists started poking Rex with a swab, trying to get a saliva sample, and failing. Rex started to get annoyed, he tried to bat the nuisance away.

"Do they even know he can fly?"

"Fly?" Lester looked at her quizzically.

Rex started to fly around the lab. A scientist accidently opened the door and he zoomed out. Nick looked amused at the situation as Abby and Claudia ran off to catch Rex.

"He can fly." Lester said watching them chase after the lizard.

"Hmm. Pretty well." Nick said. Lester walked back to his office to make a phone call.

Nick and Avery walked after Abby and Claudia to keep an eye on them, Rex flew to the bottom floor and gets in an elevator going up, just as Abby and Claudia arrive on the bottom floor. They race back up the stairs to see Rex exiting the elevator, scaring the people waiting for it.

He then flies through several offices followed by Claudia and Abby.

Avery and her dad were joined by Lester as they saw Rex on a windowsill. Abby tried to coax him down with words and treats. Rex looked at her then back out the window. He dropped his head and closed his eyes as if having made a hard decision. He flew out the window and disappeared.

A moment later he flew back in and landed in Abby's arms. Abby turned and smiled smugly at the people behind her.

Nick turned to Lester. "Oh, those risks you were talking about. There's one I didn't tell you about running down your back."

Lester looks at the green mess made by Rex on his jacket, sighs and leaves.

"It's so perfect." Nick said looking proudly at Rex.


	4. Chapter 4- anomaly

**Picture of Avery is in the cover image for this fanfic. I would consider listening to 'Drown in you' By Daughtry for this chapter, especially the second half.**

* * *

Avery stood outside of Lester's office with Abby waiting for Nick.

"So are you a student like Connor?" Abby asked getting to know Avery. Avery had honey blond hair that reached just under her breast and startling blue eyes. "I don't mean to be rude."

"That's quite alright, yeah I'm a student. I'm currently studying Evolutionary Zoology. The course my father runs. Though it would be great if he showed up one in a while to teach the students." Avery said chuckling.

"He doesn't do the lectures?"

"No. He prefers to be out in the field with Stephen. I study the same course as Connor but we never ran into each other. I don't have any friends who are interested in the same things as me. None of them really care about learning about animals and evolution." Avery said. "What do you do at Wellington zoo?"

"Oh I look after the reptiles. Well I used to, they had to make some cutbacks."

"Well if these anomalies keep appearing, you may have a new job."

Abby was cut off from replying when Nick and Claudia came out from Lester's office. Nick clutched several papers in his hand. He handed one to Avery telling her that it was permission for her to go through the anomaly. "I know that you would come along even if I told you, you couldn't go. So why not make it legal." Nick said.

They sat at Claudia's empty desk and read over the papers. There were several statements saying that the home office would not be held responsible if any accident's occurred. Avery signed it though she did not like all the agreements.

* * *

At the anomaly site Nick and Avery were checked over by medical personal. Rain had started to drip slowly and several tents were placed to keep equipment dry. Connor was trying to get Stephen but he wouldn't answer his phone.

Claudia approached Nick back in professional mode. She did not like anyone going through the anomaly, into the unknown.

"It's 18:55. I want you back no later than 20:00 hours." She explained. "If the first contact works out, we'll go from there."

They were approached by Captain Ryan who wore his full gear and carrying a big gun.

"What's he doing here?" Nick asked.

"This is Captain Ryan. He's a gulf war veteran with extensive desert experience. We don't know how dangerous it will be on the other side of the anomaly." Claudia explained. Seeing that Nick was about to argue Claudia added "No, arguments, Cutter. He goes as well."

* * *

Avery, like her father, thought that they would be the only one's going through the anomaly, then they could do what they wanted to do with no restrictions. But of course the government would want to keep an eye on the situation.

Avery shivered, she pulled her red plaid over shirt tighter on her figure. She wore a black singlet underneath. Her clothes were better suited for warm weather which were rare for England, but she figured it would be quite warm on the other side of the anomaly. Considering reptiles moved better in warm climates.

Nick and Ryan shook hands reaching a mutual understanding that they won't get in each other's way. Abby approached with Rex. Reluctant to let go, she handed the lizard bundled up in her pink scarf for warmth to Avery.

"Please take care of him. Look after yourselves as well." She asked giving Nick a kiss on the cheek and Avery a warm hug.

Ryan walked away from Claudia, and he, Avery and Nick walked towards the anomaly. He accepted a canvas bag from one of the soldiers, containing supplies. Avery glanced back at the forest of dean in case this was the last she saw of it, and then they stepped through the anomaly.

They stepped through to a landscape entirely different from the bare forest behind them. It was warm as Avery expected. The landscape was mostly barren, full of volcanic rock, with few trees and bits of scrub brush. In the distance several volcanoes smoked ready to blow at any moment.

On the other side of the anomaly, Claudia, Abby and Connor are watching the anomaly. Connor gets a note pad out of his pocket, dropping his pen. It falls to the floor rather than being attracted to the anomaly.

"My pen. The magnetic field didn't take it. The anomaly is getting weaker." Connor said looking worriedly at the anomaly.

* * *

Avery released Rex and he flew away. Ryan dumped his gear and began sorting through it whilst Nick stares around in amazement.

"Give us an hour. One hour on our own." Nick said gesturing to Avery.

Ryan looked at them unsure. Nick's hands pressed together against his mouth, he could not believe what he saw around him.

"I've got a radio." Nick said. He turned and walked away, looking around.

Avery glanced at Ryan who doesn't look entirely pleased, but lets him go. He meets Avery's eyes and gestures with his head towards Nick, silently telling her she could go.

They walked in silence for a while just looking at the prehistoric scenery. They walked until arriving at the top of a hill, where there is a pretty impressive view. The hill next to it was covered in trees spread far apart from each other. Rex flew by going to join several Coelurosauravus in the distance. A family of Scutosaurus' grazed on a nearby hill.

Nick cupped his hands around his mouth and called out. "Helen!" he looked around at the barren landscape for any sign of his wife. A vast sea lay a kilometer to his right.

Avery walked a little ways down the hill but stopped when a voice called out.

"Professor!" Someone called from behind them. Nick turned around and Ryan waving at them from the bottom of the hill. Avery climbed back up the hill to stand next to her father

"Professor! Over here!" He called out.

They followed him to a ruined campsite. A tent lay in pieces scattered around with several small metal boxes.

Nick crouched down by a crumpled metal tin and opened it. Contained within was food and medical supplies. Nick picked up a yorkie bar and stood up shaking his head. "People. Somebody's been here before us." He said chucking the bar back in.

"Well, whoever it was they didn't get far. Over here." Ryan led them over to the other side of the camp and showed them a skeleton; Nick crouches by the body. Ryan spots something in the ground and digs it out. He unearths a camera, in its case, and passes it to Avery.

Avery turns the leather camera case around, inscribed with gold letters are the letters HC.

"H.C." She whispers. Then aloud to Nick she say's "It's Mum's."

Nick and Ryan stood up shocked.

"Is it her?" Ryan asks softly as not to upset them.

Nick crouches down and counts the ribs of the skeleton.

He sighs in relief. "No, it's a man." He says.

"How did he die?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know." Nick tells him standing up. He puts an arm around Avery silently asking if she was alright.

Ryan checked his watch and told them that it was time to go. Nick refused to leave, his wife was out here somewhere and he could find her. Ryan apologizes to nick while taking a pistol out of a side holster. He hit's nick in the back of the head with it knocking him out.

"Hey what did you do that for?" Avery shouts at him. "He just wants to find mum."

"I have orders to take both of you back alive, and I intend to not disobey it." Ryan tells her hoisting Nick over his shoulder and walks towards the anomaly. Avery follows him relunctantly, she wants to do nothing but find her mother.

Nick regains consciousness as they near the anomaly, Ryan helping him the rest of the way.

When they get to the anomaly site Nick takes a swing at Ryan but misses as he is still sluggish from waking up. Ryan punches him in return knocking the Professor to the ground. Avery crouched next to her father and helped him to sit up.

"Don't… do that again." Ryan says out of breath. He looks towards the anomaly and notices it starts to flicker and dim.

"The anomaly! It's disappearing!" He shouts. He hikes his bag higher on his shoulder and runs forward.

Nick and Avery don't follow him, Ryan stops when he notices.

"Quick! Do you want to be trapped here forever?" Ryan shouts looking between the pair and the anomaly in worry. If they don't hurry they won't make it home.

Nick shakes his head. "I'm staying here to look for my wife."

"I'm not leaving you behind."

"Well what do you want to do? Shoot me?"

Ryan goes and kneels down next to the pair holding his gun to stay balanced. They both face the anomaly as it flickers faster.

"All right. You stay, I stay." Ryan tells them, staring forward.

Avery sends Ryan an exasperated look as Nick says "That's… that's just childish."

Nick looks between the anomaly and Ryan trying to make up his mind. On one hand this may be the only chance of finding his wife, he does not want someone to stay away from home because of his own selfishness. "All right." He says getting up.

Nick grabs Helen's camera from Avery and runs through the anomaly, Ryan right behind him. Avery sends one last look at the volcanic landscape then jumps through the anomaly after her father.

* * *

They hit the ground on the other side. The sky had turned dark and it took a while for Avery to adjust to the darkness. Claudia, Connor and Abby run forward to help them. Avery was disorientated, everyone was talking over each other and several people were flashing a camera at them.

They stood up as Connor asked what it was like on the other side. They started to talk before a growl interrupted them. Everyone turned to see a gorgonopsid run out of the tree sending people running. The soldiers turned to fire on the beast but their aim was off as they scrambled out of the Gorgonopsid's path.

Connor trips, and Avery fell over him. He scrambles back to his feet bringing Avery with him. By now everyone is moving, Connor, Abby and Avery in one direction, Nick and Claudia in another. The soldiers stopped firing as the target was moving too fast. A soldier screams as the Gorgonopsid tosses him.

Avery watched as the Gorgonopsid slowed down and knocked over one of the floodlights. As he roars the light sends his face into shadow, Avery briefly thought that he looked like a monster from a horror story. It swings its head towards Avery and stared at her in hunger. She stood frozen like a deer in headlights. His gaze was as piercing as any predator. She unfroze and ran.

She stopped when she realized she was not being chased. The Gorgonopsid had found easier prey. Claudia had fallen and Nick was trying to get her up. The Gorgonopsid advanced towards them.

Headlights and a car horn distract the Gorgonopsid as Stephen arrives in the 4x4. They meet head to head and the Gorgonopsid goes down. The front of the 4x4 is badly damaged, but Stephen gets out unharmed. He walks towards Nick and Claudia, who are looking at him in shock.

The Gorgonopsid opens one golden eye and roars, he gets up and looks towards his attacker. Nick scrambles to grab the abandoned machine gun and passes it to Stephen.

Stephen shot the creature in the head and a killing blow to his side. It takes a step forward and collapses, it tries to stand up again but crumpled as its front leg could not hold its weight. The Gorgonopsid let out one last dying growl then collapses. Its side stops moving and it lays still.

Avery walked forward hesitantly, the creature could be faking like the last time, but that last sound was too weak. She kneeled next to its motionless body and placed her hand on its head.

* * *

The next day Lester, Claudia, Nick and Avery are in the Home Office. Nick and Avery sat at a round table looking at a screen showing pictures of Helen Cutter in the Permian era.

"We developed the film in the camera you brought back." Lester said standing behind the table.

"It's her, It's Helen." Nick said taking his hand off his mouth.

"I'm sorry for your personal loss, professor." Lester said after turning the screen off. He walked around the table and stopped next to Nick.

"This camp that you discovered. There were no clues as to who made it, or what it was for?" Nick shook his head and he walked back to his original position.

Avery still looked at the blank screen thinking about what happened to her mother. When Helen had left 8 years ago Avery was only 14 years old. The day her mother disappeared Avery was not overly worried as her mother had done it several times before. It was two days later that her father reported her as missing.

Avery tried to stay strong but she crumbled a week after her mother's disappearance. Her grades suffered and she was close to failing when her father convinced her to get back on track.

"The thought that someone was there before us is far from reassuring. And I used to think the EU Common Agricultural Policy was far-fetched. Still, at least the immediate Crisis is over." Lester said.

Avery stayed quite as her dad moved towards the window, gesturing. "Some, force, out there, ripped the boundaries of space and time to shreds. Maybe it's happened before, in which case, every single thing we thought we knew about the Universe is wrong. Or, this is the first time. In which case, what changed? What happens next? Believe me, it's very, very far from over." He said.

Nick brushed past Lester and Claudia and leaves the office, Avery hot on his heels. Abby, Connor and Stephen fall into step with him from where they were waiting outside the office.

* * *

Nick sat in his chair at his office. It has gone dark outside and the room is lit only by a couple of desk lamps, as not to disturb Avery. Avery was asleep on a cot in the office. She dragged it in a year ago, deciding that they needed somewhere to catch some sleep, even if it was an hour or two, after the boys had spent one too many nights at the office.

He sat staring into space. He picks up picture of Helen up from his desk and looks at it. He shakes his head and places the picture face down on his desk. He stands up and walks into a small lab at the side of the office. There is a noise in the office, and a shadow moves across the room. It stops briefly at Avery's bed and reaches down to touch her hair, but it retreats as Nick comes out of the lab. Avery wakes as the shadow retreats.

"Hello? Avery?" He called out as Avery moves to stand. He moves back to his desk. The photo is gone, and a living ammonite is lying in its place.

They hear footsteps running away from his office. They follow the, and ends up on a walkway nearby where he and Stephen had met Connor. Helen is standing under a streetlight on a nearby road. When she sees Nick and Avery have seen her, she starts to move away.

"Helen!" Avery and Nick called out together. Nick runs towards the retreating figure, but she is gone by the time he gets closer.

* * *

 **Extra-long chapter for a late update. I hope you enjoy, and I've changed the characters of this story as this will be a Becker/Avery story, but it won't be for a while because this is only season one and he does not appear to season 3.**

 **But maybe they will meet before then.**


	5. Chapter 5- secrets

Nick and Stephen sat in Nick's office, going through several papers. Nick's desk and several chairs around him were covered in files and research. Nick looked as ragged as the office around him. He compared two papers on some research on gorgonopsid fossils found in South Africa but they revealed no clues.

Stephen chucked the paper in his hand down in frustration, on top of the pile in his lap. "There's ten years of Helen's work." Stephen said. Stephen had a large pile of notes on the table to his left.

"Keep looking." Nick said.

"You've read every word she ever wrote."

"Yes, but we didn't know about the anomaly then. There might be references to it in Helen's work that we overlooked." Nick argued back.

"If she knew about it, she would have told you."

Nick shook his head slowly. He looked towards a picture of Helen on his desk and started to have flashbacks of two nights ago. He saw him and Avery coming out of their lab after hearing a noise. The anomaly disappearing. Helen backing away under a streetlight.

Avery placed a mug of coffee before Nick startling him out of his thoughts.

"Are you alright?" Stephen asked noticing how he jumped.

"Just haven't been sleeping very well." Nick said.

"That's because…" Avery trailed off as Nick shook his head, telling her not to tell him.

"Because what?" Stephen looked between the two and leaned forward, being careful not to knock the papers off his lap.

"Because we both have been up most nights looking over these paper's." Avery told him, quickly changing her words.

Stephen hummed grabbing a stack next to him and taking a sip of his own mug.

* * *

Claudia talks to Lester as they walked through the home office. It was brightly lit with bright white lights and the whole building appeared to be covered in windows. As they walked she told him about the clean-up of the anomaly and the eyewitnesses.

"... schoolteacher's in shock. I'm positive we can keep her away from the papers. And the boy will be no problem." She finished telling him. Lester opens the door to an enclosed walkway and lets Claudia through first.

"Pity the monster didn't eat them both. That would have been the neatest solution." Lester said dryly letting the door wing shut. Claudia sent him an exasperated look.

They stop in the middle of the walkway and Lester turns to Claudia. "Joke" Lester said noticing her look. Another office worker hands Lester some papers to sign before she leaves.

"What about Cutter and that daughter of his?" Lester asked as if this whole matter bothered him. He could do without this strange business.

"What about them?" Claudia said.

"I don't like anyone to whom the adjective 'maverick' might be applied. Cutter virtually owns the copyright. And I have no idea how his daughter is."

"Cutter may be a little unconventional in his methods, but he's the closest thing we've got to an expert."

"You've Taken to him, haven't you?"

"I trust him, if that's what you mean?"

"Of course, what else? Very well, keep him on side for the time being. I'd rather have him inside the proverbial tent than out."

* * *

"This obsession is damaging. You're just as bad, you have both been living on nothing but caffeine these last couple of days." Stephen said pacing along the walkway outside Nick's office. He was telling his thoughts to Avery who was leaning heavily on the railing looking over the university courtyard below. She looked dead on her feet but refused to rest

Avery turned away from the railing throwing her arms up. "I know Stephen! But this is the only lead we've had in years. I am not going to give up." She told him.

"No...I'm not saying that you give up. Just try to focus on your other work and personal life as well. You've been neglecting your boyfriend these last few days." Stephen said.

"We have been chatting, but I will try to not obsess over mum as much as I have." Avery said.

Stephen crossed his arms and sent her a look. "I've still yet to meet him."

"And you most likely won't for a long time. You and dad have scared off all my previous boyfriends with your father and brother act." She said. She smiled as she remembered them scaring off her last boyfriend. A month after he was scared off she found out he was seeing other people while going out with her.

"We're just trying to keep you safe." Stephen said. There was a small beep coming from Stephen's pocket. He pulled his phone out and flipped the lid.

"A text from Abby, Connor's gone chasing after an anomaly." He said.

"The New Forest." Avery read over his shoulder. She rocked back on her heels as Stephen turned to face her. "That forest is too big to search. You go in and tell dad and I'll go to the police to see if they will call me if they find them." She turned and walked to her own car, a 4x4 like the universities, but slightly smaller.

Nick and Claudia were talking at Nick's desk when Stephen entered the office.

"Text from Abby. Connor thinks he's onto another anomaly. They've gone to investigate." Stephen said hurriedly.

"wh- what… Where are they?"

Stephen checked his phone. "New Forest. She's not exactly sure where."

"Well we cannot do anything till we know where exactly they are. The forest is too big to search, it's going to get dark soon." Nick said leaning back in his chair.

"Where's Avery?" Claudia asked looking around.

"She went off to the police station to see if they can give her a call if they find Connor and Abby." Stephen said.

* * *

It was just after six when the police called. Avery, Nick and Stephen slept at Nick's house as it would be easier for them to move when a call came in. Stephen had to force the two to go to sleep. At one point during the night he had to take research notes from Nick's room.

Avery woke quickly after the call and texted Claudia to give her the place Connor had been found.

When they got there several police were on the scene questioning Connor and Abby. Cutter pulled an officer aside to talk to him.

The morning was dreary and Avery shivered under her thin coat. They had rushed to the scene after getting the call in case there really was a predator, so she grabbed the first jacket she could, which happened to be the thinnest.

She was disappointed that there was no creature or anomaly. She walked towards the dinosaur model and grumbles. She takes the broken bottom jaw and passes it to Stephen, who turns it over.

Nick approaches as the police officer rejoins his colleague. Stephen drops the jaw and comes to stand next to Nick.

"Look, I know what you're going to say." Connor said.

"We're sorry." Abby said shortly after.

"The police aren't going to prosecute you for trespassing. Supposing it had been a predator. What were you going to do? Tame it? You knew exactly what was at stake but you just couldn't keep your mouth shut."

"It's just so big. I had to tell somebody. I'm sorry. I am. I blew it."

"Go back to college. Get on with your work. I'll find you another supervisor."

"I'm just as much to blame as he is."

"Just as stupid, maybe. But you didn't shout your mouth off and you've still got skills I can use. You stay."

Nick and Stephen leave. Connor turns away, looking like he's about to cry.

Avery sent him a sad look. "Sorry Connor." She said then rushed after Nick and Stephen.

"Did you have to be that hard on him? I know he made a mistake but any of us could have easily did the same." She said crossing her arms. She trudged along beside them looking back over her shoulder at Connor. He looked like a kicked puppy the way his head was hung low. He had his back to her and was looking over the river.

"Yes, but it was him who did it. Connor should have kept quiet so that this didn't happen." Nick said. Avery didn't say anything. She sent one more look at Connor before climbing into the back of the 4x4.


	6. Chapter 6- mistakes

Avery waited in the hall as her dad and Claudia walked into the hospital room. From the door she could make out a young man with dark brown hair shivering on the hospital bed, a thin sheen of sweat covering his skin. He was gasping for air, half lucid. She had seen the men earlier having arrived a few moments before Nick.

Avery walked towards a balcony close to the hospital room. She leaned against the concrete railing overlooking the concrete jungle below. She pulled her phone out and sent a message to her boyfriend, asking if he would go out for a drink later tonight. He replied a couple minutes later saying he would meet her at 8.

Avery placed the phone in her pocket and leaned against the rail. The cars crawled past slowly on a Sunday drive. The sky sunny and people rushing to where they needed to go. A bird came to land next to her, a brambling, reminding her of the one she found when she was younger.

 _A little girl raced through the house calling for her mother. She found her in the study; writing notes from her trip a few days back._

 _"Mother look! These boys were throwing stones at the tree outside and this bird fell out." The girl started to cry. "I-I think it's wing is broken."_

 _"Let's have a look." She grabbed the little bird from her daughter's hands and placed it on the desk in front of her. She looked it over before turning in her chair back to the girl._

 _"I think your right. Why don't you go and get your father to grab the first aid kit out of the laundry and I'll bandage its wing."_

 _"Okay mummy." The girl said before rushing off._

 _A few moments later the girl came rushing back in carrying a little case with a big red cross on it. Her husband walked in behind her being dragged in by his daughter's hand._

 _"What happened Helen?" Her husband asked looking at the bird on the desk._

 _"Our daughter found an injured bird Nick. I am going to bandage its wing." She grabbed the first aid kit from her daughter and said to her. "Avery, would you like to help me bandage its wing?"_

 _Avery nodded shaking the pigtails on her head. She walked towards the desk and Helen told her to hold the wing out. Helen placed a thin stick on the top of the wing to keep it strait, and wrapped a white bandage over it and the wing._

 _Avery smiled widely and looked towards her father, who had walked forward and wrapped his arms around her and Helen with a content smile on his face._

Nick joined her as he finished up with Dr Lewis, snapping her out of the memory.

"The man was poisoned with venom. It's quite unusual." Nick said leaning on the railing next to her.

"Did you see the wound? A single puncture mark. Wounds inflicted by a weapon don't look like that." Avery said.

"Yeah, it looked like he was bitten by something big." Nick agreed with her theory. He had said the same thing when he saw the mark.

"So it's another anomaly?" Avery said. She looked for the brambling but she could not find it. It must have flew away when Nick came out.

"Most likely. Come on lets go talk to Lester." He turned around and walked inside. Avery stood on the balcony a moment later looking for the brambling that flew away, before walking with her dad back to the car.

* * *

Nick talks to Lester as they, Claudia and Avery walk through the home office.

"I can't close the underground on a wild hunch." Lester said.

"Something injected a fatal dose of venom into his bloodstream" Nick said pulling his hands out of the pockets of his black trench coat, a gift from Avery he got last Christmas.

Avery walked close behind them. "The bite couldn't have been by anything man made."

"There could be a perfectly rational explanation." Lester said. The office was buzzling with activity oblivious to the new danger that had arisen. Perhaps the government had told the secret of the anomalies to a select few.

"Oh, now that I'd love to hear." Nick said as Lester accepted a pile of papers. Avery wondered how he could look through them while still staying on topic. They reached his office and he turned to the three following him.

"And how do you suggest I explain this to the mayor. 'Excuse me sir, would you mind terrible throwing the whole bloody underground into chaos because there may be a fair-dodging creepy-crawly on the loose somewhere?" He said getting frustrated.

"We're not talking about shutting down the whole system, just the area where the attack took place. There's a whole network of disused tunnels down there." Claudia reasoned.

Lester sighed, moving behind his desk. He chucked the papers in his hands on the table and said "Yes, Very well."

He sat down and started to sign several of the papers. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Lester said looking up again.

As they were leaving Avery bumped into a soldier walking through the office.

"Sorry." They said at the same time. His dark hair was short and styled to the sides.

"No. It was my fault I should have looked where I was going. Hi I'm Becker." The soldier said holding his hand out for her to shake.

"Avery." She said taking his hand.

"What are you doing at the Home Office? You don't particularly look like you belong here." Becker asked looking at her as if he was unsure she was a threat.

Avery took a pass she had in her bag and passed it to Becker. He took a moment to look over it before passing it back to her.

"Sorry for that. Just had to check." Becker apologized. He still stood strait; a perfect soldier.

She was about to reply when Nick came back. She looked towards him staying where she was.

"Avery are you coming?" Nick said from a doorway.

"Yeah, in a second." Avery said. She turned back to Becker.

"Well it was nice meeting you Becker. Maybe I'll see you around." She left Becker there and walked away with her dad.

* * *

Nick, Stephen, Abby and Avery arrived as the soldiers raced into the station. People were rushing out and sending strange looks at the soldiers surrounding the area. Like at the last anomaly they were covered in black clothing and moved in perfect sync. Avery wondered if the men were even human the way they moved without communication.

"We should be down there with them." Nick said talking to Claudia.

"Special Forces goes in first. You didn't think Lester was going to let you have it all your way?" Claudia said to him. She waited for Captain Ryan to tell her his men was ready. After the way he handled the last anomaly she trusted him to make the decision for his soldiers.

"We're ready to go. Just give us the word." Ryan said over the radio.

Claudia looked around to see if everyone had left the underground. "Okay. Go ahead just keep an eye out for whatever's down there. We don't want any incidences." She said.

Abby and Avery walked away to a covered area near the underground.

"Have you talked to Connor?" Abby asked her sweeping her fringe back.

"No. Not since the other day. I might talk to him later, he will still be at the university." Avery replied.

"I didn't mean to get him in trouble. It's just that if there really was an anomaly we couldn't handle it on our own." Abby said. Avery could see that she felt really bad about texting Stephen.

"You did the right thing." Avery said.

"Yeah. Well." Abby sighed out. She might have done the right thing but it was still her fault.

A few moments later the Home office soldiers came rushing out of the underground. Ryan was carrying someone who looked weak and sweaty. He brought him to one of the cars and a medic was soon on the both of them.

Avery walked over as Ryan shook the medic off him. "Look after him first." Ryan said pointing to the weakened soldier.

"They were like spiders but with pincers, not fangs. Some of them over a meter long. Horrible little…"

Nick cut him off. "Look, tell me how you feel."

"Sick. My ears are ringing…" Ryan said as they walked away from the medics.

"Any blurred vision?"

"No. But there's something else. The gunshots were to bright, like fireworks."

"That's classic signs of excess oxygen in the atmosphere." Stephen said.

Years ago when Stephen first got his Gun license he and Avery did a test with one of his guns. They had filled an old steel storage container with oxygen then fired a bullet. It had bounced around the walls at a fast rate and sent of a bright flash every time it hit something.

"A richer, more heavily oxygenated air must be seeping through from another anomaly. We're not talking about the Permian era any longer. This is much, much earlier." Nick continued. Catching on to what Stephen was saying.

"How much earlier?" Claudia asked.

"Maybe the Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. We really need to see exactly what these creatures look like. I need to see this for myself." Nick asked. He had this habit of placing his hands together when he was asking for something.

Avery, Nick, Stephen and Abby looked at her hoping she would let them go.

"Okay, go." Claudia said convinced. She took a step back allowing the boys to leave.

"Let's get some gear." Nick said and Ryan took them to where they could get suited up.

* * *

 **So we've had our first look at Becker. Would you like me to do more scenes with him or wait until season 3?**


	7. Chapter 7- more like scorpions

Avery adjusted the belt on her black suit. They were covered in head to toe with black and she wondered if it was entirely necessary.

"Oh, you wear it well. You look good." Stephen Joked next to her. The black cloths did not suit the professor, but he didn't look bad in it. Ryan walks up and offers Nick a gun who politely refuses.

"Ah. No, we need torches. The most powerful you can find." Nick said.

"Take night vision goggles." Ryan suggested, not understanding why he would prefer a torch. Whatever poisoned the man in the hospital was dangerous, they needed something to defend themselves.

"Vision isn't the issue." Stephen told him. Ryan passed him his torch and Stephen placed it in his belt.

"Well, the pest controller died a few minutes ago. They're running tests on our casualty now." Claudia says approaches them weary about this anomaly, but secretly she was glad. She preferred this over her behind-a-desk job.

"So we have an estimate of how long he survived the poison. And we can be pretty sure that what Ryan described was not the culprit."

Abby approaches, adjusting her belt.

"What's she doing?" Claudia said pointing towards Abby.

"Abby's got more practical experience with animals than the rest of us put together." Nick said, Abby did very well at the last anomaly especially with Rex and the Scutasaurus. The black suit she wore look slightly too big for her, but it looked well on her.

"I don't care if she's Doctor Dolittle. Sorry, it's just too risky."

"I can help. I've just finished a study in insect behavior." Abby lied through her teeth. She loked strait ahead and did not turn to face Claudia in case she could tell she was lying. Avery could tell she didn't want to miss this chance to see another anomaly. This was a rare opportunity, it may not happen again.

Claudia sighed then walked away. "Whatever." Avery thought she heard her mutter.

"Torches." Nick reminded Ryan.

Nick and Ryan walked off to find some torches. Stephen pulled his one out and checked it over

Stephen placed his foot against a railing and asked "Is that true?"

"Kind of. To tell you the truth, spiders aren't really my thing." Abby said with a grimace.

"Yeah, well, technically these are probably scorpions." Stephen said to riel her up.

Abby's face fell slightly "I feel better already." She grimaced again, that wasn't exactly better. Stephen walked off and the girls followed him.

* * *

They caught up to Nick who handed the two girls a torch each and double checked their equipment. He looked towards Claudia and waited for her call. Claudia checked on the radio to see if her soldiers were ready to enter if something went wrong.

"Go ahead. But I'm pulling you out if you find what poisoned the pest controller." Claudia threatened pointing the radio in her hand at Nick.

"Fine." Nick promised. "Come on lets go." He told the people behind him.

"Are you really going to do that?" Avery asked jogging up to walk with her father.

"No. I did that so she would let us go." Nick told her. They shared a smile and walked away from Claudia. Abby and Stephen walked behind them; talking as they entered the underground.

The air was stale and thick in the abandoned part of the tunnel, it smelled of rubbish and rotting meat. A rat sat on one of the pipes running along the wall chewing on an old rotting apple. She looked at it for a moment as the others walked forward. Suddenly a black shape dropped from the ceiling landing the unsuspecting rodent. She cringed as she heard the pained squeal of the rat and quickly walked towards Stephen.

"What has you so freaked?" He asked looking at her. A light sheen of sweat appeared on her brow and she wiped it away.

"I saw one of those insects back there. It at a rat." She said walking beside him. She occasionally looked up incase another spider decided to drop.

They enter a tunnel into a storeroom shining their torches around. A spider was in their slightly smaller than the one she saw back on the main tracks. They were black with two sharp pincers at the front its mouth. It ran away from the light preferring to stay in the dark.

"On the ground." Nick warned them. "That's what I thought, they're sensitive to the light."

"Did you see those pincers dad?" Avery asked shining her torch around.

"Yeah they are just pincers now, but they may be the start of the evolution of poisonous fangs, or the pincers that many scorpions today have." Nick said looking towards his daughter. He was glad that she noticed them, it meant she was paying attention in her classes.

The three of them enter a tunnel, Nick first, Abby last. Another spider crawled on the wall above them. They only notice it when it moves as Abby goes past. It lifted its fangs and scurried away as light touched it. It walks onto the floor running towards where it thought was safe. Nick tensed and moved forward more carefully.

"Oh! Does anyone have a really big slipper?" Abby said looking around the tunnel.

The walls of the tunnel were cracked and falling apart. No one had walked down here in ages, no one had any reason to. Everything was covered in water from old pipes dripping above them. Small round lights covered the wall giving off very little light.

They enter another room, spiders ran in all directions around on the floor. Some were the size of a small cat, while others were not that much bigger than a rat. A dozen or so bunk beds lined two sides, covered in moldy pillows and moth eaten sheets. Random things lay amongst the space, both old and new. A coiled piece of electrical wire sat on an old dresser; an old oil lamp lay on a bed. Rusted metal stairs lay behind them, and a ladder bolted into the wall in front of them.

There was an old projector with massive reels; old yellow paper wrapped tightly in string; falling apart desks with chairs left abandoned in front of them. It must have been an old bunker from world war one or world war two. Avery walked to an unmade bed and picked up an old children's toy. One of those ones made out of steel and wood covered in lead paint. It was a toy soldier with pieces of it stripped of paint leaving patches of wood covered in mold. She wondered what happened to the boy who once owned this toy. Was he old now with his own children and ground children, or did he die during the war as a soldier or a civilian.

"I don't like this." Nick said getting a bad feeling.

They move further into the room. Stephen gags as he stands on one of the spiders. Abby finds a fence at the side of the room, there is a fairly large hole in it. "Cutter." Abby calls. It looked like it was torn apart by something big as a saliva like substance covered the edges of the hole.

Nick, Avery and Stephen follow Abby through the fence. An anomaly lay on the other side. They go and stand in front of it.

"What's happening to us?" Nick said bewildered. He was also slightly scared. This could prove to be the greatest danger the earth has ever had to face.


	8. Chapter 8- Tunnels

Several spiders ran into the anomaly, back to their own time. Abby dropped her torch and picks it up. As she straightens she sees something move at the back of the room.

"Guys." Abby says looking at something. Avery glances over to what Abby was looking at. A creature moved amongst old steel barrels. Nick and Stephen notice the creature as well.

Avery saw flashes of red and grey plating, loosely reflecting the light of their torches. It slinked behind the barrels on hundreds of red spindly legs.

"What is it?" Abby asked.

"I don't know." Stephen replied. The creature moved slowly in a tempered grace. They moved with the creature, careful not to scare it.

"It's not a spider." Nick said. The creature was bigger than the spiders and moved more cautiously. Avery wondered if perhaps this creature fed on the spiders.

They jumped back as the creature burst out from behind a set of metal bins. The creature was nine or ten feet long, with big red mandibles and armored plating like the scales on the underside of a snake. Each plating lay on top of the one behind, grey and brown with an outline of red. It reared up half of its body and stood taller than Stephen. A single red line ran along its head stopping three plates back.

Avery saw two small eyes on the front to its head above a pair of sharp pincers. She jumped out of the way as it lunged towards her, going into a somersault and coming up next to Stephen. Her gymnastics lessons from when she was younger kicking in.

Stephen hurried Avery and Abby back through the fence, but the creature had blocked Nick from the exit. He throws a box at it and it momentarily backs off.

"Cutter, what's going on?" She asks. She heard them yelling over the radio and needed to check up on them.

"There's another creature down here." Nick says through his com system, going through the hole in the fence. "But don't worry, we're coming out."

"Stephen, Stephen can you see it?" Nick asks looking around the underground bunker.

"No!" Stephen yells out. There is a strange noise, Stephen looks up to see the creature crawling above him on a long steel beam.

"Stephen!" Abby warns. Stephen pushes Abby out of harm's way and grabs a bucket, throwing it at the creature. It falls to the floor and shakes itself before walking forward unharmed. It back's Stephen, Abby and Avery into a corner. Nick whistles, attracting the attention of the creature.

"Go!" Nick shouts. The creature looks from Stephen to him.

"Nick!" Stephen and Avery shout not wanting to leave him alone with the creature.

"Go, go. Get them out of here!" Nick yells using Stephen's protective nature to push him to take the girls and leave.

"Come on!" Stephen shouts and moves to the door.

"No!" Avery shouts refusing to leave.

Stephen and Abby make it to the tunnel and close the door, Stephen dragging Avery with him. She kicked as he picked her up and dragged her back to the entrance of the tunnel.

"No! Stop, take me back!" She shouts as he drags her outside. When Stephen let go of her she tried to run back inside, but was soon caught by two soldiers.

She pulls away from their grasp and turned to Stephen. "Why did you leave him down there?" She hissed out.

"He told me to get you out, so I did." Stephen said.

Avery glared at him then looked back towards the entrance to the tunnel.

"You're not going back down there." Stephen told her.

"Fine." Avery huffed. She walked towards Claudia who was trying to reach Nick on the radio.

"Cutter? Come in." She called into the radio. There was no reply.

"All I'm getting is interference. Look." Claudia showed Stephen the crackling sound on the radio as they walked towards a metal gate. She spreads a map on the fence to show them the blueprints of the old underground. Claudia pointed on a spot on the map. "There's no other way out. This tunnel was blocked 30 years ago."

"What? Then why isn't he back here?" Abby asked exasperated.

"Look there is another tunnel leading off the bunker we we're in. There is no exit but he must have gone into it." Avery told them tracing a line along the map.

"Look, he's got to be trapped, okay? I'm going back in." Stephen said turning to walk back to the entrance to the tunnels.

"Hey, you're not going without me." Avery demanded about to follow.

"No-one goes anywhere until we know what we're dealing with." Claudia told them. They turned around and walked back to Claudia.

"He could be injured." Stephen said leaning against the gate.

Claudia sighed. "I don't want to leave him down there anymore than you do, but I'm not losing anyone else in this wild goose chase. We don't even know for sure where he is. Did you see what kind of creature it was?"

"It was some kind of centipede." Stephen told her.

"But huge!" Abby added.

"Any more? Like preferred habitat, behavioral patterns, strengths, weaknesses?"

"We don't know. No one does!" Abby yelled out starting to get stressed.

"Connor might. He's like a walking encyclopedia of this stuff. He probably has giant bug fridge magnets." Stephen said throwing an arm into the air. Avery could tell he was starting to get agitated, she was as well. The longer Nick was down there, the more likely he could be dying from a bite.

"Okay, I'll get him here." Claudia said. She handed Stephen the map and walked away to find Ryan.

"You go and distract Claudia. I'm going back in." Stephen said turning to Avery.

"Not without me." Avery demanded.

"No. I need you to distract Claudia." Stephen said leaving no room for argument.

"Okay, but be quick. He could have been bitten already." Avery said.

"Why are you going back down there?" Abby asked trying to stop him from leaving.

"I can't leave him in there." Stephen told her.

"You can't go down there without back up." Abby said.

"Watch me." He passed the map to Avery and turned to leave.

"Stephen." Abby called but he was already running back to the station.


	9. Chapter 9- Connor

**Chapter 9-** Connor

* * *

Avery stood next to Abby who was trying to reach Stephen on the radio. They didn't notice Claudia and Ryan had come up behind them.

"Stephen. Where are you? Stephen?" Abby called through the headpiece. Avery looked around for something to do, she didn't like waiting.

"Is there any answer?" Avery asked. Abby shook her head and tried to contact him again.

"I'm going back in." Avery said turning to leave. She grabbed a torch and turned to leave.

"No you're not." Claudia said blocking her way. Avery turned back to Abby and they shared a guilty look. They were supposed to keep an eye out and not get caught.

"What's he done?" Claudia demanded looking behind Avery.

Abby gave Claudia a sorrowful look.

Claudia ignored her and grabbed the headset from Abby. "Stephen, where the hell are you?" She called into the radio pressing it against her ears.

"He was only trying to help." Abby said looking worried.

"Well, he's done a really great job, hasn't he?" Claudia took the headpiece away from her ear and glared at the two girls. Avery glared right back, they should have been allowed to look. No one else was trying to help.

"Stephen, come in. Stephen?" Claudia tried again. When there was no answer she turned back to Abby.

"That's the problem with heroic gestures. Succeed and you look wonderful. Fail, and all you do is leave everybody else with a bloody mess to clear up." Abby looked through her annoyed glare waiting for the lecture to be over.

"Well done." Claudia said placing the headset back into her hands. She turned to Ryan and his team. "Get down there." Ryan leaves to get his men ready.

They turned to watch as Ryan runs down the steps with two men. They see Connor walking forward from a car at the bottom.

"Connor!" Abby called out. Avery noticed his small smile before he dropped it. She could tell he had become smitten with the white haired girl.

Connor sets his computer up at a table close to the entrance of the tunnel, he was looking up possible creatures similar to the one they saw down in the tunnel. Avery stood behind him next to Claudia and Abby looking over his shoulders.

"Do you know what era we are dealing with?" He asked Avery knowing she had the most experience out of the girls present.

"There were signs of excess oxygen and those spiders look familiar. It was most likely the carboniferous." Avery said thinking back to her boyfriend.

"Okay, Carboniferous. So it's probably an Arthropleurid. That's a centipede on steroids, basically. It's more or less blind, good sense of smell and touch. I mean, this thing's pretty big and scary looking, but it's more or less timid. It's the kind of bug that'd stick to the kitchen at parties." Connor told them reading the information off his computer.

"This one must have a personality disorder. How dangerous is it?" Claudia asked.

"According to this, it would have eaten dead wood and leaves." Connor told them quite sure.

"So it's not poisonous."

"No way."

"That's a good thing then." Claudia said relieved. They hear a shout and turn to see Stephen being half carried by Nick and one of the soldiers. They rush over as a soldier yells for a stretcher.

Soon Stephen was loaded onto a stretcher and the paramedics took over. They started to strap him down as not to aggravate his wounds.

"Stephen!" Abby and Avery yell as they approach him. One of the paramedics pulled his color back to expose his wounds. It was a similar puncture mark to the one on the man they saw this morning. It was raised above the skin and surrounded in thick pulsing veins. A trickle of blood ran down from the wound. Stephen was covered in sweat and was shaking from shock. He pulled in shallow breath as if he was struggling to breath. His left arm was clutched against his stomach. He could not move it, the venom was already doing its work.

"He's been bitten by the Arthropleurid. Same wound, same symptoms as the pest controller. We need to do something before it destroys his central nervous system." Nick told them hurriedly as a gauze was placed over the wound. They would have to take it off later but for now it was used to slow down the bleeding.

"Poison?" Connor asked as they started to wheel him towards the ambulance.

"The spiders are off the hook. It's the centipede that's the killer." Nick explained.

Claudia gave Connor a pointed look. "Not poisonous you said."

Connor tried to defend himself. "Look, I was only speculating."

"Tell them about Helen. She was there." Avery heard Stephen say. She looks behind her as Nick, Connor and Claudia fell back, away from the stretcher.

As Stephen is being loaded into the ambulance the paramedics pause to open the doors.

"You know, you look really beautiful." Stephen said. Avery could tell he was talking to Abby and tried not to listen.

"You're delirious." Abby replied.

"Have dinner with me."

"We'll talk about it when you're better."

"I can't wait that long."

"Of course I will. And I'll have coffee at your place later and stay for breakfast in the morning." Avery definitely did not want to hear that. It was one thing to hear him ask her out on a date, but his sex life was a whole other matter. He was like her brother for Pete's sake.

"Good result. It's amazing how much easier this stuff is when you're dying." Stephen groans out as a flash of pain rips through his body.

"You're not dying!" Abby said with a slight waver in her voice. She looked at Stephen sadly as he was loaded into the ambulance.

Abby and Avery look at each other. They know that only one person can ride in the ambulance with Stephen.

"You go." Avery tells Abby. Abby look at her unsure if the other girl meant what she said "He asked you out, just do me a favor and call me when you get to the hospital. Abby nods at her and jumps in the ambulance. A paramedic climbs in after and the ambulance speeds away.

Avery walks back to Nick and Claudia as they finished their conversation.

"Dad?" Avery asked Nick. Claudia looks at Avery and leaves knowing Avery wanted to talk to her dad alone.

"Yeah." Nick asks.

"Did Stephen really see mom?"

"I'm not sure. He could have been hallucinating." Nick told her.

"He didn't seem that out of it. But I'll ask him when his better." Avery's phone rang and she grabbed it out of her pocket.

"What's happening?" She answered seeing it was Abby.

"I've just talked to the doctor. They need a sample of the venom Stephen was injected with, then they might be able to find an anti-venom that can counteract it." Abby said through the phone. "But there's one problem, the anti-venom has a 50, 50 chance of killing him."

"It's better than nothing. Just get back here as fast as you can." Avery hangs up and calls out for Claudia and Ryan. Claudia, Connor and Ryan rush over and she explains what happened. "I just got a call from Abby, apparently we have a chance of saving Stephen, but we need to stop the Arthropleurid from escaping."

"I'll get some men a couple of torches. We'll run the spiders back into the anomaly, but we'll keep the creature from escaping." Ryan tells them.

"Go." Claudia says and he rushes off.

* * *

 **So, so sorry for the late update. I love that people are reading my story, it makes me happy that someone likes my work.**

 **I also have not beta-tester so any mistakes are all my own, but if anyone is interested they can private message me.**


	10. Chapter 10- Cure

**Chapter 10- Cure**

Abby came straight back after talking to the doctor, she joined the others as they were debating on how to save Stephen.

"Can't we run some more tests and find a match for the venom somehow?" Claudia asked.

"That would take too long. He's dying." Abby said convinced this was the best option.

"No, the only way to shortcut the process is to collect a pure sample of venom from the creature that bit him." Nick said agreeing with Abby. "I refuse to let him die." He added looking at Avery. He knew how close they were, it was nothing romantic just a brother and sister kind of love.

Claudia looked at him as if he was mad, "how the hell are we going to do that? Ask it to fill a specimen jar?" She said sarcastically.

"In a way" The side of Nick's mouth pulled up at the side as if he said this, as unsure of his method as the others were.

"Oh, come on." Connor said catching onto his meaning.

"No. It's the only option." He told them. He picked up a radio from a table in front of him. "Ryan, Ryan are you there?"

There was a small crackling before the captain replied "First line's clear. Moving into second bunker." He said.

"Have you seen the centipede yet? If we lose it Stephen's dead." Nick said but before Ryan could answer he added "On no account let it return through the anomaly. Repeat, do not let it go back." He let the radio go quite and turned to Connor. "Find me something that will do the job."

A look of shock crossed his face quickly before Connor turned away. Avery joined him knowing he had no idea what to look for.

"You're not a screw-up you know." Avery said walking next to him.

He looked towards her slightly and gave her a small smile, half believing her. "Yeah." He said softly.

"It's true. Dad may not be the most… open person about his feelings but he likes you." She said nudging his shoulder.

"Thanks, Avery." His smile widened as he nudged back.

"My pleasure. Now where are we going to find the things we need?" She looking around.

"You know what we need?" He turned his head towards her as they continued walking.

Avery looked towards a medical tent and saw a few zip lock bags containing ice. "No, but I have an idea. Come on." she gestured and they ran towards the tent, who knew how long Stephen had?

After a bit of fiddling they managed to get the bags tied around Nick's arm with some duct tape. Avery hoped what the packed behind it wouldn't get punctured to.

They enter the storeroom where Ryan and his men were standing guard. They walked through the ripped fence into the room containing the anomaly. Avery waited as they went through, deciding to stay with Connor and see if there was anything he missed in his database.

"Okay what do you remember?" She said on a chair beside him. His laptop was propped open on a metal table. It was quite sturdy despite being underground for what must have been at least a decade.

"Okay the creature was supposed to live of dead leaves and not be poisonous." Connor said quickly scanning over his website.

"It's not your fault so think. I know you're smart so use that brain of yours. Paleontologists cannot get everything right from a couple of million year old fossils." She reprimanded.

"Okay, okay. The creature is obviously an insect from the carboniferous, and from where most of its fossils were found it must have been..." He trailed off and his eyes widened slightly. He quickly spun out of his chair and rushed towards where Cutter was staring at the anomaly.

"Must have been what?" She yelled rushing after him after seeing a slight gleam in his eyes.

"Professor! I'd forgotten. Arthropleurid, they were supposed to be burrowers, so look for a hole, in the floor, in the walls, anywhere." Connor said going back through the fence. He and the soldiers start looking for a hole in a room covered in bunkbeds. Avery figured the bunker must have been an old world war two bunker, having the amount of supplies and beds it had.

Their torches shined brightly over the room reaching all the corners. Avery searched with new vigor, knowing this could be the last chance of finding the creature.

Connor finds it behind a pile of junk and turns around pumping his fist down before calling out. "Cutter! I found it!" He shouts happily. Cutter rushes into the room and starts chucking away more of the junk. "I was right, it is still here."

He looks back to see Claudia grinning widely "Good work" she tells him. The soldiers stayed behind them, guns trained on the large hole in case the creature came out. The hole was large and could easily fit one of the larger soldiers if they crawled through it.

Cutter reached inside to feel how deep it could possibly be. "How deep could this be?" He asked Connor.

"umm…A creature that size? 50 feet, maybe." Connor said.

Claudia squatted beside Cutter. Looking at how extensive the hole was. Her head snapped away when Cutter said "All right, fine, I'm going in."

"Not without me." Avery said kneeling next to her father.

"That's crazy." Claudia said drawing their attention towards her.

"I'm going to come too." Connor cut in. Cutter paused. He looked towards Avery then to Ryan. Ryan considered it for a moment before nodding.

"Aye." Nick said with a nod and a wink of his eye. The boy was growing on him.

"Cool, okay umm…" Connor slung his bag onto the top of the bunk next to him and turned to Abby. "Look, if I don't come back, you can have my Star Trek Next Generation top trumps."

"I'll treasure them." Abby told him.

Connor then changed his mind and turned back to look at her "you know what, on second thoughts, maybe you should bury them with me." Abby gave him a confused look which he missed as he turned to Ryan.

Nick handed a bottle to the pair. "Here, put this on your clothes. It's turpentine. Bugs hate it. All right?"

They nodded and headed to the hole. Cutter went through first, followed by Ryan, Connor then Avery.. Avery look back to see Claudia crouched by the tunnel entrance. They just managed to squeeze through the hole and Avery had no idea which way they were going. It felt like they were getting deeper underground, but they could have been going up for all she knew. The walls crumbled with dirt and long brown roots stuck out from every direction.

"I won't have a panic attack. I will not have a panic attack." Connor kept muttering in front of her.

"Connor. It's okay to be scared, just use it to push yourself through. Okay?" Avery said softly. Connor looked back at her and she gave him an encouraging smile before they continued on

Connor climbed out in front of Avery and grabbed her hand to help pull her out. They came out the other end into an area that looked like an old factory. The walls were made of concrete and a large structure of steel girders reached towards the tall ceiling.

"Could it really have climbed up there?" Connor asked looking up at the top of the structure.

"Let's find out." Nick said. He placed the torch onto a steel barrel next to the hole and walked behind the corner to a set of stairs. Ryan took the safety off his gun and moved to head up first, but Nick stops him by the shoulders.

"Claustrophobia and vertigo on the same day. This is, um, fabulous." Connor said looking up at the cavernous ceiling.

"Whatever happens, don't shoot until we've got the venom." Nick told Ryan as they climbed up.

As they reach the top story, Avery noticed a fence around the platform at the top, keeping people out, but there is a hole in it, which Nick, Ryan and Connor go through. Avery stops and notices a sign hanging off the twisted ruins of the fence. "Dad." She calls out holding the sign up. The sign warned that the area contained electricity, and had the words 'Danger of Death' written below a triangle with someone getting electrified. Avery really hopped it wasn't a forewarning of what might happen.

They walk around long tin tubes looking for any sign of the creature. It stays hidden until Connor knocks over a metal stool. They notice a movement and a flash of grey and look up to see the arthropleurid climbing down one of the pipes. It rears up above the group, antennae swing wildly about. They briefly touch Nick who steps forward in an attempt to antagonize the insect. It rears back and lets out a chitter.

"Come on." Nick urges lifting his forearm up towards the creature. It chitters again and lunges forward. As the long mandibles at the front of its head wrap around his torso two flaps at its mouth open us and a long tube like the ones mosquito have comes sliding out and punctures the bag in Cutter's arm.

Arthropleurid releases Nick and he stumbles back. Connor picks up the stool he tripped over earlier and starts to hit the creature before Ryan pushes him back. Ryan shoots the creature but the bullets mostly missed as the creature moved its upper body side to side. The ones that did hit had little effect apart from making it angry. Green blood splattered out of the two bullet holes that managed to hit. The Arthropleurid lunges at Ryan and knocks him back, but doesn't bite him. It rears back from him, turning towards Connor and Avery.

The Arthropleurid grabs hold of the stool Connor thrusts at it and pulls it out of Connor's grasp.

It became jammed in the arthropleurid's mouth and it tried to get rid of the stool by thrashing around. The stool accidentally hits one of the electrified areas, electrocuting the arthropleurid. The stool clatters to the ground as the creature sways, its head blacked from the electricity. It stumbles back and doubles over backwards falling off the top of the girder. Avery rushes over to the side to see it crash its head on the stairs, then hit the ground. It lay motionless as the guys took a couple of deep breaths before Nick and Ryan start to laugh in relief, Connor was mildly shocked that he saved the day. Nick passes Ryan his gun and pulls back his sleeve, revealing the plastic bag full of arthropleurid venom.

"Let's get this back to Stephen." He says walking back to the hole. Avery stands next to it as Nick and Connor climb through. Ryan motions for Avery to follow but she stays where she is. "You go back without me. I'm gonna stay and make sure the arthropleurid doesn't come alive again."

"You sure." Ryan asks looking towards the arthropleurid. "Maybe I should stay with you?"

"No go back and get some men. I'll be fine."

Ryan looks at her skeptically. He slings the gun off from his neck and passes it to the younger girl. "Do you know how to shoot?" He asks her.

"Surprisingly I do. Stephen taught me how to a long time ago. We go shooting at the range on the weekend sometimes when one of us gets a bit tense." Ryan nods at her then exits through the tunnel.

When he disappears she walks towards the arthropleurid and crouches beside it. She nudges it with the tip of the gun. When she sees it makes no movement not even a twitch she lays the gun on the ground beside her. "Why are you showing up? And what do you have to do with my mother?"

* * *

Later in the day Stephen sat up in bed, reading a book and looking a lot better. Claudia enters with Avery who just came back from minding the creature.

"Hi." Claudia says.

"Hi." Stephen replied glancing at Avery. She looked at him briefly then looked away as she walked towards the window.

"How are you feeling?" Claudia asked.

Like I gargled with sand and slept inside a tumble dryer.

Claudia let out a little laugh before coming to the matter she came for. "So, tell me about Helen."

"What about Helen?"

"You saw her."

"I saw her? When?"

"In the tunnel. That's what you said."

"I… I was gone, you know. I don't remember anything. I was probably just seeing things." Stephen

"Yeah, probably." Claudia said. Avery could hear the clear suspicion in her voice. She smiles as Claudia looks at her and leaves when she notices Abby.

"What was all that about?" Stephen asked.

"You really can't remember a thing after you were bitten? None of the things you said in the ambulance?"

"What did I say?" Stephen said catching on that he might have said something he shouldn't have.

"Oh, just stuff. I just thought some of it might of stuck, that's all." Abby looked for any sign of recognition in his eyes.

"Was it important?"

"Nah, nah. No, not really." Abby dismissed. She sends him a forlorn look when he turns back to his book.

"Thanks for looking after me, Abby." Stephen says looking back up. Abby pats his arm then leaves feeling like Avery needed to talk to him more.

Avery stands at the window a bit longer biting at her bottom lip.

"Are you angry at me or something?" Stephen asked her. She still continued to stare out the window refusing to look at her. "Look if I said something I shouldn't have… I'm sorry"

"No you didn't say anything." Avery turned and sat on the bed beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I just couldn't see you that close to death."

"Hey, it's okay." Stephen says placing the book down. He gave her a quick hug, noticing her eyes had started to water.

Avery pulls out of the hug and picks up the brown hardcover book. "Is this the one I got you for Christmas?"

"Yeah. I thought I might as well finish it while I'm stuck here."

"Don't worry you'll be out in a few days." Avery said nudging him with her shoulder.

"Yeah. Hey did I really see Helen?" Stephen asks her taking the book back.

"I'm not sure. But if you did, where was she all this time and what does she want?"


	11. Chapter 11- lies

Avery sat on a bench in the university court yard looking at the students bustling around her. She was nursing a hangover from the night before with Michael, her boyfriend. With Stephen in hospital she had missed her initial date with Michael. They managed to go out the night after before they headed back to his place.

"How's the new job going?" Michael asked from where he sat next to Avery, she couldn't tell him about the anomalies so she had to find another way to explain why she had disappeared the last few days.

"Shh, talk quieter." She whispered and he chuckled. "It's alright. It could be a bit more interesting." She laughed quietly on the inside knowing the anomalies were as exiting as it got.

"Why won't you tell me anything about it if it's that boring?" Michael said.

"You'll find it boring, and I don't want to bore you."

"How boring could it be if Stephen managed to get hurt?" He accused. It was a continued argument from last night. The same argument the reason she had a headache now. A hangover for making Michael drunk to forget about the issue so they could enjoy there night.

"I told you he just got bitten by a spider." She shrugged wincing as the movement caused her head to pulse.

"Okay." Michael said skeptically. He grabbed her hand and held it in his. "Come on. I'll walk you to your car." He walked her across the yard to the car park. "I'll meet you after my class. Say my place?"

"Sure, if nothing comes up." Giving her a quick peck Michael left one last goodbye and walked back to his class. Avery got into her car and drove towards the hospital.

* * *

"Not a thing after I went into the tunnels. Probably for the best though, right? Still, they say it's only short term, so, you know…" Avery heard Stephen say as she walked into his hospital room. He was packing his bag ready to leave as he chatted to Connor about his memory.

"Hey." Avery said as she leaned on a medical cabinet next to Connor listening to their conversation.

"Hey" Both of them replied.

"What's with the sunglasses?" Connor asked somewhat loudly.

"Shh. Hangover." Avery replied. Her headache had calmed down but it was still a light throb.

Stephen threw her a pack of aspirin and she took two.

Connor continued the chat with Stephen saying quietly then before "it's all been pretty scary, hasn't it? You know, it's not until you got bitten that I though that one of us might actually die from doing this. Really upset me."

"You must have gone through hell." Stephen said sarcastically faking concern.

"Yep." Connor said before a grin spread across his face.

Avery and Stephen grinned with him sharing in some silent joke.

"It did make me think about what's important though, you know. Sorts out your priorities a bit." Avery agreed with Connor. What would happen if she was the one to get bitten and had died. She knew her father, Michael and Stephen would miss her, but who else. Avery used to have a great deal of friends when she was younger but when Helen disappeared she grew distant from them, preferring to spend more time with her father and Stephen. It was a wonder she met Michael at all.

She broke away from her thoughts as Connor stands up. "If you get killed, can I have your iPod?" Avery snorted at his request. What a weird thing to say, but it wasn't surprising he said it.

Abby walks in before Stephen can reply. She was wearing a skirt with long black boots and black tights. She wore a red shirt and a cream sweater with a deep v-neck. The guys do a double take. Avery can see Connor looking up and down checking her out and rolled her eyes.

"Is that perfume?" Connor asked catching a faint whiff of it.

Abby replied to his question in a disbelieving tone. "I can do the girl thing, you know." Avery knew Connor had a reason to be surprised, Abby didn't appear to act as most women do and her mannerisms suggested she was more of a person who was used to having more male friends. (And I actually mean just friends)

"Ooh." Connor mimicked as he threw a pillow onto Stephen's hospital bed.

"You look really good." Stephen complimented.

"Thanks." Abby said.

"It's good of you both to come. Shouldn't have bothered." Stephen gestured towards Abby and Connor.

"Don't flatter yourself. Some of us just like hanging out with nurses." Connor joked leaning around Avery to look at the nurse standing behind her desk. Avery moved and blocked his view, smirking at him.

"Come on, I'll give you a lift home." Abby offers turning to face him as he was about to leave.

Stephen: Oh, there's no need. My girlfriend's picking me up.

"Girlfriend?" Avery and Connor said staring at him. The last time she knew Stephen wasn't seeing anyone, at least no one he ever told her about.

"Allison. She's been in the rainforest for two years researching infectious diseases." Avery kept quiet at Stephen's words, she had a feeling he was lying. There was something he wasn't telling them.

"Let's hope she's not one of those girls who brings her work home with her." Connor said.

"Hmm, you must have missed her." Abby turned away and retreated behind the bed, a look of disappointment crossing her face.

"Yeah. I'd better go." Stephen said walking out of the room. He refused to look at Avery as he left knowing she could tell he was lying.

"Bye." Connor holds a hand up to say goodbye as he walks off.

"Two years. How much sex are they going to have over the next few days?" Connor said sensing Abby's mood. Sometimes he was a complete idiot but at other times he was quite empathetic.

Abby throws a pillow at Connor.

"Sorry." Abby apologizes.

"It's alright."

"Well, so much for the girl thing."

"I think you look great." Connor compliments.

"Me too. Any guy would be lucky to meet you." Avery said sitting next to Abby on the bed.

"Hey how did your video to Lester go?" Avery asked Connor.

"I thought it was pretty good. Though I did lose a good water bottle." Connor said.

"What is it with you throwing metal things into the anomaly?" Abby asked glancing at Connor.

"It's cool, that's all." Connor said sheepishly.

Abby shook her head silently and turned to face Avery. "How was last night with Michael?"

"It was good. Could have gone a little better." Avery replied. There was a buzzing in her pocket and she pulled out her phone. "It's Dad. There's been another creature incursion at the Crystal Palace Diving Institute." Avery told them. "Do any of you know where that is?"

"I do it's just past Christmas street." Abby said getting up. "I'll meet you there."


	12. Chapter 12- pool

**Chapter 12- pool**

When they arrived at the swimming center to see police guarding the entrance and interviewing what must have been a victim. Before they could get in however they each had to show their ID's at the front. No one wanted any journalists mulling around the place.

They met up with Nick besides the entrance to the pool. "Stephen I need you to get changed into the gear I told you to bring. There's been a suspected murder and the woman keeps talking about seeing some sort of monster. Abby, Connor and Avery I want you to take water samples of each pool. I'm going to go talk with Claudia and the head of the police."

"Why is it a _suspected_ murder?" Connor asked him.

"They couldn't find a body. The woman had called saying her boyfriend was missing and there was a creature in the water. The police found traces of blood in the pool, suspecting he could have been murdered." Nick replied.

"Ok we'll test the water." Avery said.

"Ok But wait for Stephen to go in first." Nick said quickly before walking over to Claudia.

Heading over to several pieces of equipment stacked against a wall she lifted a metal case and carried it over to the pool opposite where the man was possibly murdered.

While they were testing the other pool Stephen came out dressed in a pair of swimming trunks and carrying a pair of flippers in his left hand. He put them on quickly then jumped into the other pool. They finished up with their pool then went to join him.

Connor took his shoes off and rolled his pant legs up. He sat with his feet dangling in the water. Stephen climbed up next to him and took his flippers off. Abby and Avery knelt behind them against a metal bar separating them from the boys.

"See anything down there?" Avery asked peeing into the clear blue water.

"No nothing yet. But I may take another look." Stephen replied. "Cutter and I are unsure with whether the anomalies can turn invisible or if their always glowing. It can't hurt to be sure."

"With all this chlorine in the pool, I'm surprised the creature came through. To a reptile it would have been like swimming in a bucket of acid." Connor pointed out. The creature would not have been used to chlorine if it came from the past.

"Yeah. It probably sensed the danger and got out fast before the anomaly closed." Stpehen said.

Abby gets up and walks away carrying a sample case. Stephen finishes putting on his flippers on now and cleans the lenses of his goggles before putting them on. Avery looked at the puncture mhe hole was closed and all that remained was a dark purple bruise.

"So, how's Allison?" Connor asked bringing up the same question as Avery was thinking.

"Jet-lagged." Stephen replied. Not looking at him or Avery.

"You see, it's funny, because you always give the impression like you were single." Connor said.

"That's funny, I didn't think I was giving any impression whatsoever." Stephen tried to get Connor off the topic of his supposed girlfriend.

"You'd be surprised."

"Connor, I'm flattered, but you're really not my type." Stephen said. Connor let out a sarcastic laugh as Stephen dived into the pool. They both got splashed as he breached the water.

"Poor woman." Avery said looking at the girl wrapped in a blanket used for shock victims. "I couldn't imagine how I would feel if Michael was killed."

"You have a boyfriend?" Connor asked turning to her.

"Yeah Michael Tiller. He goes to the university but we don't have any of the same classes."

"How'd you meet?"

"We met his first day at the university. He just came over from Australia to live with his sister."

"That's sweet." Connor said.

"Well I'm going to go help Abby. Keep an eye on him will ya'. He may not be fully recovered yet. There unsure because of the unknown poison."

"Will do." Connor said as she walked away.

"Find anything interesting?" Avery asked walking up to Abby. She was dropping some sort of solution into a beaker of water. She watched as it turned a pale blue.

"The water in the pool Stephens swimming in has been diluted. There's not as much chlorine in it as the other pool or what is normal." She lifted the pale blue water up for Avery to see. "The water in hear should have turned a dark blue if there was a fair amount of chlorine in it. I think there was an anomaly here, but it's gone now."

"Let's bring the samples back to the home office for further analysis. There's nothing more here we can do." Nick said walking over to the pair.

"What's happening with Diane Johnson?" Avery watched as Diane was walked out of the building by one of the officers.

"She's going to be charged on the suspected murder of her boyfriend." Nick said with an annoyed look on his face.

"But she didn't kill him. A creature did." Abby was outraged with her conviction.

"I know. But we cannot tell the police that. We have to keep things a secret." Nick said then looking at the scowl Avery wore he added "I know it's not fair but there is nothing we can do. Only Claudia has a chance of removing her sentence."

"I'm going to get Stephen and Connor. You start packing up things here." Nick said sensing no further arguments. Avery turned back to packing the equipment, silently contemplating.

"You okay." Abby asked noticing her silence.

"Yeah. Just thinking. I will grab the other case near the pool and you can start bringing things to the car?" Avery asked.

"Yeah." Abby said.


	13. Chapter 13- Careful what you wish for

They waited in one of the meeting rooms while the home office scientists tested the samples they collected from the pool. Avery wanted to help them but they declined with an air of superiority. Apparently they thought a university student didn't know enough to be helping them.

"I know why they didn't want me helping them but what about you?" Avery asked Abby who sat across from her on the wide oval table.

"I think some of them are jealous that they can't go into the field. I can't blame them if I was in their shoes I would want to be out there seeing the creatures as well." Abby replied.

"Fair enough. Hey Connor!" Avery called out down the table. She giggled as he jumped and whipped his head around. "What's happening out there?" She noticed he was peeking near the door trying to listen to several soldiers standing near the door. As she called out however one of the soldiers turned around and she met his eyes. It was the same man she bumped into a while ago. Becker she believed his name was. She got up to talk to him when his fiends led him away from the prying ears of Connor. She sat back down as Claudia walked in.

"What's happening with Miss Johnson?" Avery asked her as she walked towards her.

Claudia just sighed and sat down in a chair next to her. "It's not good I'm afraid. There's nothing Lester can do without revealing our secret."

"Then why don't we tell them." Stephen replied from across Claudia. "There has got to be some proof we can obtain to get her off."

"Even if we could tell them the anomaly has disappeared, along with the body and creature. All evidence points towards Diane. It's out of my hands." She huffed.

A soldier knocked at the door of the conference room and let himself in. "Ma'am, there has been an unidentified organic mass found at North York reservoir." He said back straight and legs spread apart slightly. "Several of my men are already bringing it in."

"Okay I'll come and get the co-ordinates." She stood up and addressed the people in the room. "You stay here until the object has been seen by the scientists. Cutter you're just in time. Come with me something has been found." She walked past him and he followed after sending a confused look to Avery.

* * *

"A bolus?" Avery asked sitting in the passenger seat next to Cutter. She looked over the pictures taken of the mass. She didn't feel queasy looking at it, unlike Connor who practically turned green when he first saw the images.

"Yeah." He replied looking at her then back at the road. "A big mass as well. But the DNA was definitely the boy from the swimming pool. Poor Lad."

"To be eaten whole. It must have been a big creature…" She trailed off as a thought occurred to her "...Are you sure it belongs to the boy. I mean how did it end up in the reservoir?"

"I think the anomaly may be fixed in one position in the past, yet for some reason in our time it's more fluid and can move. But that just makes it harder to know what these anomalies are and why they suddenly decided to appear now."

"Well this would be the third one we've seen so far. I have a feeling we are going to see more." Avery continued. "That gives us more time to study them."

"Hmm" Cutter hummed agreeing with her. He looked towards the back seat where Stephen usually sat and remembered he never hopped in the car. "What's going on with you and Stephen?"

"Nothing really. Just a bit of miscommunication. Nothing to worry about." Avery said hurriedly.

"It's not nothing he's been avoiding you for most of the day." He said giving her a stare that was impossible to ignore.

"Fine, there's something but we can sort it out after we find out what's happening."

"Okay. Just sort it out soon. I need you and Stephen working together, you're better as a team than alone."

* * *

They searched the reservoir on a steel boat to try and catch a glimpse of the creature. As they approached the pier Avery could see Connor standing at the other end sticking a long stick into the water. He had different colored marks on it, with slight water stains underneath. Stephen and Abby were busy on the shore testing water samples and comparing them to the ones collected at the pool. Another boat still stayed on the water and occasionally a diver returned to it to report what they had seen.

Nick greeted Ryan as they got off the boat to talk to Claudia. Nick usually didn't like soldiers, the ones he usually met cared mainly for themselves and though they were better than others because of their status. It's easy to meet soldiers when you work with creatures that sometimes get mistaken as being dangerous to humans. But Ryan was different he cared for his men and knew when he was out of his league. He left the science to Cutter and focused on being backup.

"We haven't found anything yet." Claudia reported "No creature, no anomaly, no nothing. We're still searching the reservoir, but with any luck the anomaly's closed again."

"It's hard to search in these waters. It's not very clear is it?" Avery said looking back towards the water. She preferred more natural lakes teeming with life, but she couldn't blame others for wanting to come out here. It was a great place to relax without having to worry about what might be in the water. Until now.

"I need detailed local maps, lists of swimming pools, rivers, lakes, anything nearby. Can you get those for me?" Nick said.

Claudia smiled, "Should I be asking why?"

"It's just an idea."

"Do you know what I miss? Those soul-crushingly dull civil service meetings, which made suicide look like an exciting career option." Nick smiled unbelievably at Claudia's words. "I used to sit there praying something would happen in my life"

"Careful what you wish for."


	14. Chapter 14- Truth

**Chapter 14- The truth**

"Professor! Professor!" Connor called out from across the pier. They ran towards him at his shout as he poked the stick into the water. "You're really going to want to see this. The reservoir's land locked, right?" Connor said.

"Yes." Nick replied.

"So, allowing for condensation and rainfall, the depth should be pretty consistent."

"Of course. There's no other exit way for the water." Avery said not catching on to what he was getting at.

"Well, I made this mark at water level earlier" He takes the stick out and shows him a band of red tape part way up. He pokes the stick back into the water but it doesn't reach the line. "The water level's fallen 40 centimeters since then."

Avery turns and gestures to Stephen to come over. He gives his vial to Abby and races back towards her to catch what Connor was saying "This isn't a reservoir any more, it's a tidal lake. The water's literally pouring out of it."

"It must be flowing out through the anomaly." Cutter mentions. They turn their heads and look out across the water. "Which means it's still down there somewhere." He turned to Stephen. "Tell Ryan to pull his men out of the water. The anomaly is still down there and more creatures could still come through. They may not like the colder water but if they sense prey they won't hesitate to come through."

Nick stood on pier staring over the water. Claudia walked over and joined him. She handed him a hot beverage as the temperature began to drop. "Here you are."

"Thanks very much." Nick said accepting it.

Claudia looked at him then back out to the water. She didn't want him knowing what she thought. "Thinking about Helen?"

Nick looked at her in confusion. "How did you know that?

"I'm a highly trained civil servant. We're famous for our emotional empathy." She gave a small smile laughing at what people usually thought she was like.

Nick reflected her smile. "Whatever I'm doing, she's always there. She never really goes away." He frowned again at his thoughts. "I'm sure it annoys Avery as well. She was young when Helen disappeared, but not young enough to bounce back from her disappearance."

"How did you go about adopting Avery?"

"It wasn't anything too spectacular. She is related to me by blood as well. Avery was my sisters kid, but she was too young to look after Avery so she asked us to look after her when she was born. Avery knows of this but she doesn't care."

"Why didn't your sister ever take her back?"

"She died during childbirth. She was too young. Her body couldn't handle the strain. Helen never cared. As far as she was concerned Avery was her kid. That's what made her so great."

"Strange. Of all the people in the world to hallucinate, Stephen chose Helen."

Nick stared across the water. "Steam."

"What?"

"Don't you see? The tide must be coming in, bringing in warmer water from the other side. The steam is telling us exactly where the anomaly is." Nick rushed off to find Stephen, ignoring what Claudia said.

Claudia Stood there as he rushed off staring at the steam floating above the water. "How did he figure that out?"

"We need to talk." Stephen said coming over to Avery as she talked to one of the scientists helping to analyse the water samples.

"I'll bring the samples when I'm done here." She told the scientist as he passed a clipboard to her.

Stephen waited until the scientist had walked away before gathering the courage for what he needed to say. "Look, we need to stop ignoring each other or else we won't be able to work together."

"Fine. Just tell me why you lied to me. I know you don't have a girlfriend and even if you did why would you not tell me?"

"You're right I don't have a girlfriend. The truth is…" He trailed off as he lost the courage to tell her about him and Helen.

"What is the truth?" He answered her with silence. "Fine don't tell me. But just so you know we are no longer friends. It hurts that you cannot confide in me. I thought we were friends, but I guess I was wrong." She grabbed a few samples and the clipboard and turned to leave when Stephen grabbed her wrist. She refused to look at him to hurt to see his eyes pleading for her to listen.

"The truth is I slept with Helen before she disappeared." He told her quickly. He could see how betrayed she looked. She snatched her wrist out of his grasp her sadness instantly replaced with rage. "How could you. How could you do this to me and dad? You're his closest friend, but you betrayed him." She took a step back as he moved forward. "Don't, I need a while to process this. Just leave me alone."

"Okay, Okay. Just please don't tell Nick."

"I won't. But you need to tell him." As she walked away Stephen could briefly see tears starting in her eyes and it broke his heart. She was like a sister to him and if he lost her friendship he would not forgive himself.


	15. Chapter 15- Who's the girl with Connor?

**Chapter 15- Who's the girl with Connor?**

Avery changed into a wetsuit and followed her dad onto the boat. They were going to dive into the water and see if they could find the anomaly. A team was already near the site where the steam was spotted. They radioed in and told them there was no sign of the creature.

Cutter could feel the tension had surmounted between the two. At first he was hesitant to let them both onto the boat until the matter was sorted, but he observed that there quarrel was not interfering with their work so he decided to let them on. That didn't mean he wasn't going to have a talk with them about it later.

They waited with the other boat as the water was checked again for any sighting of the creature. When they were given the all clear they checked their equipment before diving backwards into the water.

It was dark and murky green. They could just barely see each other in the water. Just because they couldn't see the creature from on the water didn't mean that they were safe. The creature could probably sense them better than they could sense it. It had millions of years to hone its ability to hunt in the water.

They turned their torches on and checked their watches to see how long they had until their oxygen ran out. They swam forward searching for the anomaly.

After a while of searching the anomaly suddenly burst into existence. The diver in front of them swam through it just as it appeared. They stopped and waited for the diver to come back.

Avery shone her torch around and spotted something large swimming towards them. She quickly turned and shone her torch at Nick to catch his attention. He turned towards her and quickly spotted the creature behind her.

It stared at them quickly as Avery's heart rate beat louder and a rush of blood raced to her head. It shook its head side to side then swam straight past them and through the anomaly. They stood there frozen waiting to see if the creature would come back through. The anomaly flickered for a moment then disappeared as quickly as it came.

Nick gestured for them to get out of the water so they swam back towards the boats. As they were pulled out of the water one of the soldiers asked about the diver. Avery looked away as Nick told them about his disappearance. She would be very upset if one of her friends had disappeared.

* * *

They stood next to Connor as he described what he and Abby had seen. It was likely that the mosasaur they saw was the same as the one that disappeared. "It's some kind of mosasaur, maybe six or seven meters. Cretaceous, at a guess."

"Scary. And at that size, it couldn't have been fully-grown." Nick said looking at Abby who was getting checked by a medic.

"Yeah."

"Which is just as well for you."

He pats Connor on the back and rubs his shoulder as Claudia approaches. They turn to face a group of Ryan's men who are standing a short distance away with Ryan and Stephen.

"They're all really upset about losing the diver. Tell me exactly what happened." Claudia said solemnly. No one wanted to lose a friend.

Claudia and Nick walk towards the divers, leaving Avery behind with Abby and Connor.

Avery stood back as Abby approached and took Connor's hand. "You saved my life." Abby said.

"I did, didn't I?" Connor said clearly proud. Avery could just hear the affection in his voice and the lingering hug he gave Abby convinced her so clearly that he had something for the lizard girl. She was surprised Abby did not pick it up.

"Okay." Abby said after the hug started to get weird.

"What?" Connor mumbled clearly not picking up on her discomfort.

"You can let go now."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I just…"

"Thanks." Abby said. Connor stretched his arms back and let out a sigh as Abby walked away to talk to Cutter.

"Way to go Connor. Not bad for someone who supposedly gets to miss out on all the action." Avery said punching him on the shoulder.

"Ow." Connor cried out rubbing his shoulder.

"Oh come on." She said "I didn't hit you that hard. Let's go home it's been a long day."

* * *

The next day at the university Avery sat next to Connor at one of the cafeteria tables looking at information on the mosasaur. Her dad may have been the head of his apartment so he could skip out of work but the same couldn't be said for Avery's university life. She still had many classes to finish. It was her last year after all, and apparently Connor's as well.

Tom and Duncan approached him as they pulled up Connor's website. He started putting different evidence in the site based on what they saw at the reservoir. He decided he should probably keep it updated for any other possible incursions, of course he wouldn't be posting any new evidence online, but he still wanted to keep something of a record log. Something Avery thought of when she first sat next to him.

Duncan sat across from them and Duncan read the webpage out loud over Connor's shoulder, startling him. "Mosasaur, eh? Cretaceous era marine predator. Anything from 2 to 20 meters in length and two tonnes in weight. Extinct 65 million years ago."

"Conn, shouldn't we get going? I just got a message something new has popped up." Avery told him discreetly so that he would get the message, but his fiends wouldn't. After the fiasco a couple of days ago they didn't want the other two knowing about anything new that popped up.

He quickly snapped the laptop lid down and they both got up after grabbing there bags and coats.

"I was reading that. What's this? New project?" Tom complained as they were about to rush off.

"No. No. No, no, no, just interested." He said, checking his watch. "Oh, is that the time? I'm going to have to go. We've somewhere to go."

"Whoa, what's the rush? It's DVD night. 'Battlefield Earth', director's commentaries. Your turn to get the pizza."

"Right. You know what? You can have it on me. I've really got to be somewhere."

Connor hands Duncan some money and then leaves. Avery quickly shuffles her coat and shakes both their hands. "It was nice meeting you, however brief it was." She rushed off after Connor he was her ride after all.

Tom just sits in the seat Connor just vacated, watching them leave. "What's got into him?"

"Maybe he's still angry over our practical joke." Duncan replied.

"Come on. That fake dinosaur was a masterpiece."

"Yeah. Perhaps he's got a girlfriend. Maybe it's that Avery chick." They both laughed at his suggestion. "Nah. She's with that Michael bloke from our business lectures."

"Well, it must be pretty radical. He missed my Gerry Anderson marathon last weekend as well. Said he wasn't interested."

"How weird is that?"

"Why the sudden obsession with dinosaurs?"

"Maybe he's onto something. A dig somewhere, a good fossil, something he wants to keep to himself. I mean isn't Avery professor Cutter's daughter. If she was hanging out with him, it would be for a dig."

"Which would be selfish. You know, I think we need to keep a closer eye on that boy."

 **So next chapter finally up. I want to do more new anomalies that go slightly Au from the show, but I feel like for the first season there weren't many anomalies appearing between the episodes apart from between the last couple of episodes.**


	16. Chapter 16- betrayal

**Chapter 16- Betrayal**

Avery leaned against the window sill that was facing the garden in the backyard waiting for Claudia. She thought the garden was once well kept but had started to be overcome with weeds and littered leaves. Toys where scattered around the ground leaving her to believe someone lived here with their kids.

Claudia walks towards them carrying a handkerchief with the words H C plastered on the white surface. She noticed Avery didn't seem particularly shocked leading her to believe that perhaps the girl knew that Helen was still around, or at least had suspected it. She waited patiently for either of them to start talking, she wouldn't be very good at her job if she could not be able to crack people.

"Helen's mad old aunt used to give us those handkerchiefs, um… Same present every single birthday and Christmas, and we used to make jokes about them." Cutter said.

Avery remembered when she was younger her father had told her that anything written on the handkerchief could not be read by her, it was a secret between him and mommy. Of course being a rebellious child she had peaked at the handkerchiefs many times. She wondered what was so secret about them for years, they only really asked stupid things like what's for dinner or what are we going to watch tonight, until one day she opened one and it read 'GOTCHA' as a hand came upon her shoulder. Her father and mother had laughed as the child jumped, her face turning a bright shade of red.

"That's a message. It means Helen's waiting for me on the other side of the anomaly." He continued, shuffling around. Avery knew Nick did not like to talk about Helen, even if she was still alive.

"Just like she was in the Underground." Claudia said expectedly.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me? You lied to me, to all of us."

"Try and see it from my perspective. I had just found out that my dead wife was still alive."

"She might know things. Things that could help us. You have no right to decide what we should know and when we should know it."

"She's my wife." Nick said rubbing the back of his neck. Even though she had supposedly 'died' eight years ago didn't men he did not love her. When Helen had disappeared it broke his heart, and now as he was starting to get over it the anomalies had started to appear, along with Helen who was determined to torment with him.

"Maybe in your mind that gives you some kind of special privilege, but this affects all of us. If you can't see that, then you just can't be here anymore." Claudia chucked the Handkerchief onto the ground and walked away, vexation lacing her words.

"Why is she playing with us? It wasn't enough for us to think she was dead, now she won't even face us. What did we do to drive her away?" Avery said anger starting to fuel her rage.

"I don't know, but we'll find out. I promise." Nick said walking way. If Helen was waiting on the other side of the anomaly he would go in after her to find answers not only for himself but for Avery as well.

* * *

Lester rounded them all up in the living room of the house to discuss the recent turn of events. He stood before them largely displeased, arms crossed, back straight. "The revelation that Helen Cutter's still alive changes everything." He said out loud alerting Connor and Abby to the news.

"She's still alive? Um, how did I miss that?" Connor cut in.

"Long story." Claudia replied before looking down as Lester shot her a look.

"So, eight years, she's been living in the past. My God. How are we going to explain Celebrity Love Island to her?" Connor joked, trying to ease the tension in the room. Only to be cut off by Claudia.

"Shut up Connor."

"She's eight years ahead of us in terms of understanding the anomalies." Lester continued. "Her knowledge could be priceless and we have to share it."

"Which is fine if she was here, but she isn't." Stephen said.

"Which is why we're going to go and find her. We know she wants to make contact. She must be brought back here, by force if necessary."

"This is my wife you're talking about." Nick challenged.

"Which is why I want you to go through the anomaly and bring her back." Lester challenged back, eye twitching when Cutter met his gaze. "You will of course have a military escort."

"To do what? Shoot her if she won't come back?"

"To protect you, both of you." Lester explained. Avery knew it was not the only reason, but maybe if Ryan was the soldier taken alone her mother won't be shot. "The alternative is you sever all ties with the anomaly project with immediate effect, and we'll go and find her ourselves."

"Okay, on one condition. I go on my own." Nick said, with a tone that did not allow any argument. "There's no question of force. I'll do my best, but if she doesn't want to come back, then that's it."

Looking at these two men Avery was reminded of two alpha's fighting for dominance, from their tone, to their posture and even to the roles they held. Sometimes they could behave but when one of them was displeased with the other, they would both challenge each other.

"How can we trust you?" Claudia jabbed at Cutter. Nick stared at her incredulously.

"Oh, I'm sure Professor Cutter won't let us down again." Lester stepped forward to leave but turned back to Cutter. "You will try and remember what side you're on, won't you?" He added before walking off, Ryan and Claudia following him.

"I wish I could come with you." Avery said as Connor and Abby left the room.

"You can't." Cutter said. "If you come Lester will insist someone go with us. As far as he knows us we would leave with Helen. Then he would lose precious information. No it's better if you stay here. I'll see you later." Cutter said, putting a hand on her arm. He walked out to put his diving gear in, leaving Stephen and Avery in the room.

"That's not the only reason he's going." Avery said, staring after Nick.

"He's probable going to reassure himself that he's coming back." Stephen said.

"Yeah, maybe." She said then walked outside to talk to Connor.

* * *

Stephen walked into the room looking at the watch on his arm. "Abby, how long has he been?"

"91 minutes, 41 seconds." Abby said, checking a stopwatch.

Avery and Connor stood at a table in the middle of the study, the same place they had the meeting earlier.

"The drains. Stephen? In theory, a creature could make its way along the sewage system all the way to the river, and once it's there, it could go anywhere." Connor explained.

"And?" Stephen asked, leaning on the table.

"Well, good news is the size of the drains rules out anything bigger than a small mosasaur." Connor said.

"Well, how small." Abby asked.

"Not small enough." Avery cut in. "If it was somewhere where the water was colder we might have a chance of them not coming out. But the water in the basement comes from the anomaly. We can only hope something hasn't swam through already."

Claudia entered room opposite as a bunch of soldiers carrying swimsuits came in. There was a handheld radio on the table next to them and they could hear a lot of chatter about them preparing to enter the anomaly.

"What's going on?" Stephen asked Claudia. She didn't answer. Not wanting to face them she closed the door. Stephen approached it and tried the handle, but Claudia had locked them in.

* * *

"His times up." Abby said later as the stopwatch went off. She picked up the radio and contact Stephen "Stephen, that's two hours. He'll be running out of air."

A little while later there was a commotion in the hallway and they rushed outside to see Cutter being led to an ambulance.

After a while he woke up. "How long have I been out for?" Nick asked.

"Not long." Abby said.

"I have to talk to Claudia." Nick said getting up.

"There's something you should know." Abby tried to explain, but was cut off as Nick stepped out of the ambulance.

Three soldiers had rushed forward guns aimed at him. "Stand still. Don't move!" One of them yelled.

"What's going on?" Nick asked confused. He turned to Avery who was trying to hold off her anger as her mother was marched out of the house, hands enclosed in handcuffs. Helen shoot an accusing glare at Nick, then her gaze softened slightly at seeing Avery. Avery turned her head back to the house, old rage rising up inside of her. Stephen was being held back at the house by a soldier as Helen was put into a car. Lester got in a car with Claudia and the two cars drove away, escorted by police.

An hour later Ryan approached them telling them to go home, and that he was sorry. They would be called when they where needed again. Avery tried to glare at him but she couldn't, not in the same way she was angry at Claudia. Ryan was a soldier, and doing his job was a part of his nature. On top of that he looked generally sorry about the betrayal.


	17. Chapter 17- not what they were expecting

Becker sat a desk going over the paperwork for his last job. He heard the rumors going around the home office, but payed them no heed. There were always rumors. Working for a government organization you heard all sorts of rumors about cover-ups, but they were not always true.

The latest rumor going around the office was the appearance of dinosaurs. Sure the office had contingencies for all sorts of strange things, but _dinosaurs._ It seemed a bit out there. It was probably some sort of large animal that was largely exaggerated by someone looking for attention.

The only weird thing was the hush, hush about it, and the people brought in to help. Sure two of the men and the white haired girl seemed to fit in here because of their respective jobs, but the blond hair girl he had run into and the tall black haired boy were out of place, being students and all.

What was even more out of place was the dark haired woman who was marched downstairs to the interrogation room. She was handcuffed and flagged by four big military men identifying her as a major suspect or possible threat.

He leaned back and rubbed sore eyes. He was used to training with the other soldiers or out on a mission, not stuck behind some desk. He preferred action. He was placed behind desk duty because of an accident on his last mission; a broken bone, crushed between the jaws of a large dog.

He scowled at a couple of soldiers flirting with the blond haired woman, Avery, if he remembered correctly. He saw her smile turned into a frown as one of the soldiers said something she clearly did not like. He kept an eye on the soldiers as she turned around to finish making her coffee. The soldiers with her, Mark and Daniel, were known to get quite rowdy with some of the female soldiers in the group. But this girl looked like she could take care of herself, as she ignored their further attempts to flirt.

He got up however when the girl tried to leave but couldn't as Daniel had grabbed her wrist. He grabbed his crutches and hobbled over to the group as the girl wretched her hand away from Daniel's grasp. "Is there a problem here boys?" He asked standing behind her, arms crossed, back strait. He glared at the two soldiers and they stood back. Becker was a captain after all, if they defied him it would mean extra work for them.

"No. I was just telling these boys that I currently have a boyfriend, but thanks for the offer. Right? But thanks for the concern _Captain_ Becker" Avery said sending the boys a knowing look.

"Yes sir. That's all that was happening. We were just about leaving." They turned and walked away leaving Becker and Avery alone.

"Thanks for that Becker. What happened?" Avery said gesturing to his leg.

"A dog bit me. He caused a fracture in my leg. It should heal in a few weeks. Until then I'm stuck on desk duty."

"I guess you're not a big fan of desk duty." Avery said picking up the annoyance in his voice.

"Yeah. I prefer to be out and doing something, not sitting around."

"Hmm. I know how you feel." She said after taking a sip of her coffee. "Oh pardon my manners, do you want a cup as well?"

"No I'm fine. Already had a bit too much caffeine today. I should try and avoid any more," He said waving her suggestion away. "But thanks for the offer."

"Hey Avery. Something's happening." Becker heard someone call. He turned around and spotted one of her friends. The medium build guy, with short black spiky hair.

"Well I better be going. It was nice to meet you again Becker." She said then walked around him to her friend. Becker returned to a desk with a small smile, maybe being stuck in the office wasn't such a bad thing after all.

* * *

Lester refused to let any of them see Helen until he had a few words with her himself. That was where he was now, while Avery and the rest of team went to deal with another anomaly. It was at an apartment block in the city center, meaning they wanted to get the anomaly sorted before the creature caused havoc. From experience Avery knew panic could escalate quickly in more populated areas.

When they pulled up in the 4x4 behind the silver van, they saw the soldiers run in, guns ready. She laughed at the kids standing back with their hands up, as if the soldiers had come for them.

Nick locked the car as they hopped out and headed inside. A ball came rolling towards Stephen who paused to kick it, knocking it into a sign saying 'No Ball Games'. Which Avery thought was why the boys thought they were in trouble.

"Fluke." Connor said as they walked inside.

"Jealous." Stephen bantered back.

"Boys" Avery chided from behind Connor, who walked in behind Stephen.

"I didn't expect the SAS." An Indian lady with medium length dark hair said as they reached her apartment.

"The town council takes pest control very seriously, Mrs Davis." Nick said braced against the bathroom door, left hand over the handle. "Are you ready?" Nick asked Ryan.

Ryan waited for a moment before nodding, wanting to see if any of the other soldiers were ready as well.

Stephen took a step back as Nick opened the door gesturing Ryan and one of his soldiers into the room. They both moved to the side, one on each side of the door guns trained on the creature on the floor.

Nick and Stephen walked in as well before realizing that the reptile on the floor was not as prehistoric as they were expecting. "Relax, everyone. It's only a python." Nick said chuckling.

Avery jumped as Mrs. Davies screamed from the doorway next to her and Connor, "Only a python? What the hell were you expecting?"

"Ow." Connor said clutching his ear.

Avery walked past Nick, Stephen and the soldiers towards the sink. Everyone stared at her as she started to wash her hands. "What?" She said over her shoulder "You have to wash your hands before picking up a reptile, they are sensitive to the oils on your hands." She dried her hands on a nearby towel and bent down to pick up the snake. "Does anyone want to call Abby? She'll probably know where the snake can go." She said standing up. She put the middle of the snake behind her head, offering it more support, and to lessen the weight of it.

"Uh, yeah. Stephen you call Abby. I'm going to give a call to Claudia and tell her what we found." Nick said. Avery could tell he also wanted to know about Helen, her as well. Nick hadn't wanted to tell her about his meeting with Helen last night, too tired and upset with the conversation. Avery was going to ask him later today, when they weren't busy with their new job.

Nick grabbed his phone and walked out of the room, Ryan and a couple of soldiers following him. Ryan instructed one of the men to stay in the room, in case there was something else. Avery told the soldier she had everything and he could wait in the corridor or outside the apartment. The soldier, who now looked slightly pale at the site of the Python, was grateful he could exit the room.

Nick came back in as the man exited. "Helen's wanting to talk not, but only to me. Come meet me when you are done here, you know what Stephen's like around snakes." Nick noticed her look and added "I know you don't want to talk to Helen, but you must. It'll be good for you."

Avery felt betrayed by her mother, both for betraying her and her dad and for not coming back for them. Did her mother even care about her? About dad? It didn't matter, she was done chasing after her mother.


	18. Chapter 18- Helen

**A/N one word of swearing later in the chapter, but it needed to fit the scene. I hope you liked the interlude during the last chapter about Becker. I hope I'm doing him right, review for any suggestions about his character and whether you want me to include him a bit more.**

* * *

Abby arrived just as Avery's phone began to ring. Avery quickly transferred the snake into Abby's stretched out arms and fetched her phone from her back jean pocket. She answered it on the fifth ring noticing it was Michael.

"Hey Avery. You busy later today?" Michael said through the phone.

"Yeah. Maybe." She replied placing the phone against her ear. She washed her hands in the sink of the bathroom.

"Okay just let me know. There's this new restaurant I found in town. I thought we could go together later?"

"Yeah. I'll text you when I know I'm not busy." Avery replied.

"Good. I also have a surprise for you after dinner."

"Oohh. What is it?" Avery asked, interest peaked. She always loved new surprises, well the ones that were good, not the kind Stephen sprang on her.

"Uh uh. Can't tell you. It'll spoil the surprise." He teased and she could imagine him shaking his head at her. Like a child who wanted to know what was hidden beneath the wrapper of a Christmas tree. "I gotta go, my project needs completing. I don't know how you balance your work with all the new work we've been getting."

"I work hard."

"Yeah, you've often put work before some of our dates, but that's what I love about you. Your determination to get the job done. Bye, love ya'"

"Love you too. Bye" Avery said as he hung up the phone. She placed it back into her pocket and walked inside. She hadn't been doing most of her college work at all. Maybe tomorrow if nothing else came up she would sit down and try to complete it all.

"Sorry about that" Avery said walking back into the bathroom. She saw Stephen holding the front half snake with a small sack, Abby holding its other half. He held it out as far away from him as possible, fear lacing his frame.

 _So dinosaur's he could handle, but when it comes to a snake about as harmful to them as the spiders from the carboniferous he freaks out. Just like the soldier._

"Don't worry, this one's just a baby. Fully grown they can be up to 20 feet long." Connor read out from his laptop. He sat on the lid of toilet just to the left of the bathroom door.

"That makes me feel so much better." Said Stephen sarcastically. He hissed through his teeth as the snake moved in his grasp.

"Are you okay?" Abby asked smiling at him. Avery could tell that she was smiling because of the snake and to offer comfort for Stephen, not because she was making fun of him. Abby was the girl next door sort of person, which might have been why Connor was always trying to get her to notice him.

"Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love snakes." Stephen told her, his movements contradicting his words. The snake hissed making Stephen pass it back to Abby. "We're going to need a bigger sack." He said timorously, leaving the room as quick as he could.

"Stephen!" Abby called out as he left.

"Abby, can I ask you a quick favour?" Connor asked tentatively when he heard the front door close.

"I'm a bit busy now." Abby said trying to stop the snake from curling to tightly around her hand.

"It's just, I'm having a bit of hassle with my flat at the moment. I was just wondering whether I could stay on your couch for a few days."

"Connor, does this look like Tai Chi I'm doing?" Abby said shifting the snake around in her grip. Avery moved forward and grabbed half the snake, letting its head move up her arm. When she was younger she used to be terrified of snakes, for the same reason she was terrified of spiders. For some reason anything with fangs was always more scary to her than a dangerous dog. Poison was such an uncertain thing, and it affected people beneath the skin making it very hard to stop.

She got over them with the help of a small diamond python Helen had been given by a friend. Every day she would slowly reach into the tank and move her finger down its scales. After a while it used to move along her arm and she would pick it up. Nick had been shocked to see her holding it one day when he had come home from work.

"It'd just be until I sorted something out."

"Yeah, whatever. We'll talk about it later."

"How's this?" Stephen said. He came in with a much larger sack, almost triple the size of the last one.

"That's good." Abby said as they placed the snake into the bag, unwrapping its tail from around her arm.

"Okay, there we go."

"Right, I'll see you in a minute." She said dusting her hands off.

"Where are you going?" Stephen looked up suddenly in alarm.

Abby walked past him saying "Tea break."

Stephen shot Connor a look asking silently for him to take.

Connor merely placed his hands up in the air "I'm not touching it."

"I'll take it." Avery said reaching for the bag. "Hey we haven't got anything on later today do we." She said turning to Stephen.

"No nothing that I know of. Why?"

"Michael's taking me out for dinner." Avery said with a smile, she shifted the bag in her hands gently and walked past Stephen. "I'll drop this off with Abby for now. Apparently Helen wants to talk to me."

* * *

Avery sat across from Helen at the long round table in the middle of the room. She knew her dad, Claudia and Lester where standing on the other side of the one way mirror set high into the wall behind her, seeing if Helen would divulge any information to her.

"How have you been?" Helen asked leaning forwards in her chair, setting her arms against the table.

"Good. I've been good." Avery replied. She didn't know what to say to the stranger in front of her.

"Been up to much?"

"I'm in college now, nearly finished my degree. I might join dad in his work, might travel on my own for a while. Don't know yet." Avery said, leaning back in her chair. "I'm also seeing someone at the moment, Michael. We've been together for about a year now, he's going to take me out for dinner later tonight."

"That's good. Your looking after yourself I see. Your father hasn't you should get him to eat more."

"That should've been your job." Avery said, her voice slipping into her Scottish accent as her voice raised in anger. "You should have stayed with us, or brought us with you. Instead you left us alone you betrayed me and you betrayed dad. Did you ever even love us?" She said in desperation, leaning against the table as she stood up. "Did you even care about me? Or was I just someone in your life and not your real daughter."

"I did care about you. I've always loved your father and you." Helen said raising her voice as well.

"Bullshit." Avery said. Shocking those who watched her, they had never heard her yell before. "If you cared about us you would have stayed. You would never have never betrayed us, even before you left." Avery said glaring at her to tell Helen that she knew about her relationship with Stephen. "You don't care about us. You might have once, but you lost the right to be family when you walked out of our lives and made us think you were dead," She kicked her chair away and stomped outside, running to the nearest bathroom.

She rushed into one of the nearest stalls, and locking the door behind her, she slid down the wall, sobbing into her hands.

A few minutes later she heard the bathroom door open as Claudia walked in. She felt a slight pressure against the door and though she must have been leaning on the other side. "Are you okay?" Claudia asked softly.

"Yeah." Avery whispered bringing her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "It's just, frustrating. She left us 8 years ago. Just disappeared without a trace. We didn't think she was dead until a year later, dad worked himself rugged. He didn't sleep right for ages. Helen could have dropped a hint or found us, instead she decides to contact us now. And for what, because she was lonely. That's no excuse."

"I know, but now we have a job to do. Helen's warned us that a pride of saber-toothed killers will rampage central London." Claudia said, hoping that would distract her,

"Yeah, I'll come just let me freshen up."


	19. Chapter 19- Suspicions

"Smilodon. Its literal meaning is "knife-tooth". They're up to 3 metres long. They have sabre teeth. They hunt in packs. They're ruthless predators." Nick explained to Claudia and Lester who stood across from him. They stood in an observation deck overlooking Helen. A desk piled with different computers sat in one wall monitoring Helen and recording her movements. "Now, according to Helen, a large pride has established itself near an anomaly and it's only a matter of time before they find their way through.

"It's imperative we find them, one of the most dangerous things about them are their ability to stalk their prey, coupled with their size and power they would devastate the city." Avery added from next to Cutter. "If there was only one we might have had a chance to contain it before it killed too many people, but a pack would be even dangerous, especially if they have young."

"London's a big place. Where exactly is this going to happen?" Claudia asked.

"Well, that's your problem. She won't tell us." Nick answered. "She wants to take us there herself."

"It's a trick." Lester said.

"I agree." Claudia said.

"That's possible. But maybe she wants to prove to you that she's not as callous as you imagine." Cutter said, making Avery scoff, he shot her a look before turning back to Lester.

"Well, she could do that without moving a muscle." Lester said, glancing down at Helen.

"Look, she might well be selfish, but she's not evil. I know her." Nick pleaded.

"You mean you used to know her." Claudia said, throwing a look to Avery who nodded in agreement.

"I think I trust her about as far as I can throw a stegosaurus." Lester snarked.

"Okay, then the consequences of doing nothing could be a massacre. I don't know how you explain that to the Tourist Board." Cutter said, knowing Lester would not ignore the threat of people dying.

"Fine." Lester conceded. "But, you take full responsibility for her. If anything happens you'll be the one in trouble. Got that."

"Understood." Nick said.

Lester shot him a look and turned around muttering under his breath about the paperwork involved.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Claudia told him before walking away after Lester.

"Why were you pushing Helen to go? You know she will try and escape as soon as we get there." Avery said turning to Nick. "She will leave us in a heartbeat. She did it once, she will do it again."

"I know." Nick huffed back. "But she is the only one who knows where this anomaly is, if there is a chance lives at stake. Why shouldn't we risk it? Besides she knows more about these things than us. Any information is valuable."

"Be careful you're sounding like Lester." Avery snorted, showing she understood his reasoning.

"Oh, shut up." Nick said smiling. Shaking his head in disbelief, he patted her shoulder then walked out the room. Avery looked after him for a moment before turning back to Helen below.

"You better not be lying." She whispered. Helen looked up at the window staring at where she was standing, as if she had heard her.

* * *

"Here?" Claudia asked incredulously as they pulled up and walked into a stadium.

Helen turned to face her, smiling widely, still wearing the same jumpsuit they found her in. She had refused any of the clothing Claudia had offered her, Avery suspected the jumpsuit made it easier to hide because of its color, which made her suspicions grew. She was certain her mother was going to bolt as soon as they found the anomaly. "Do exactly as I say and this doesn't have to be a disaster."

They walk along the side of the room before coming to a large industrial kitchen. Everything was a shining silver. Two scientists covered head to toe in a white type of clothing stood at one of the metal benches, ready to analyze any readings coming off the anomaly.

They looked around the room for any other glinting lights beside the ones bouncing from the soldiers torches. Helen stopped in front of a large fridge.

"In there?" Claudia asked gesturing to the fridge.

"Yup. In there." Helen said.

"Connor?"

Connor looked apprehensive beside Stephen as he realized what Claudia wanted him to do. He sent a look to Cutter who nodded for him to go ahead.

Avery looked as Helen looked back at them as Connor passed her. She kept her gaze even with Helen until she looked away. Just because she was her mother, doesn't mean she was ready to trust her. But she respected her dad's choices, if he thought Helen was telling the truth she would give Helen a chance.

"There's no trace of a magnetic field." Connor noted looking up from his compass.

"The doors are too thick, it can't penetrate the metal." Helen explained.

Claudia turned to face Cutter, she didn't trust Helen either. "Is that true?

"Possible." He replied, lifting one shoulder.

"Watch her." She said to Ryan as she approached the door, ready to unlock the fridge.

"Hey!" Helen suddenly yelled startling Claudia, "What if the cats have already come through. They could be right behind that door."

"You know what," Claudia turned to her annoyed at her antics. "She's really starting to get on my nerves."

"I can understand that." Cutter said, both him and Stephen smiling.

"You're bluffing." Claudia tightened her eyes. Avery suspected there was another reason for her hostility to Helen. She smirked as she spared a glance at her dad. Maybe the woman from the home office liked him.

"Try me." Helen challenged meeting her gaze.

"Stephen."

Stephen did as Claudia said and checked the padlock on the fridge. He patted his pockets before Helen walked forward holding her knife out to him. He grabbed it and cut the thin chain then handed it back. Avery could see her mother's shoulders tense, ready to bolt when the doors open. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at her mother, moving a bit closer.

As Stephen got ready to open the doors the soldiers moved forward and pushed all three women behind them, guns trained on the fridge. Stephen gave the door a little push, finding it heavy Ryan moved forward to help open the other one. Helen tensed beside Avery again, which Claudia caught onto as she looked towards the other woman.

When the doors open they caught a brief flash of the anomaly before Ryan was yelling at them to get down. As they ducked metal started firing over their heads towards the anomaly, a metal sieve nearly managing to hit Connor as they went, but Stephen caught it about a foot away from his head.

"This is where you duck." Stephen warned.

"Okay." Connor said ducking immediately.

Stephen stood back from the door as more objects flew into the anomaly. Ryan mirroring him on the other side, but gunned pointed at the anomaly in case the Sabre tooth tigers came through while his soldiers guards where down.

"You know, you'd make a terrible poker player." Helen said to Claudia, referencing her earlier comment, to which Claudia replied with a glare.


	20. Chapter 20- escape

**Chapter 20- escape**

"Anybody hungry?" Pulling a pie of one of the metal shelves, after everything had ceased going through. Apparently the anomaly could only attract light pieces of metal rather than large ones, meaning its power relied on something else.

"Oh my God. We've got to get rid of them. The meat will act like bait." Helen yelled trying to rush forward as Ryan and another soldier grabbed her. Helen grabbed Ryan's tac vest as Nick ran towards the fridge.

"Unless you want your men to be breakfast, I suggest you do something." She told him, he looked at his soldiers for a brief moment, before nodding and rushing forward to help the professor move the selves and boxes of pies.

"Okay, clear them out." Ryan told his men.

Take this." Nick said as he passed a large trolley to Stephen.

This was the chance Helen was waiting for, Avery saw as she looked back quickly before grabbing her arm and pulling both of them through the anomaly, the shock of the suddenly pull restraining her from stopping. But the sudden change of concrete to a grassy hill caused Avery to stumble and trip. She got up quickly and had a brief chance to look around, they were in some sort of long grassy field with a dozen or more anomalies shimmering around them, before she was yanked forward again through another anomaly.

When she had finally shaken off her shock and wretched her hand away from her mother she noticed they were in the middle of a forest, with trees she had never seen before. Some looked similar to conifers, but were larger than the ones she had seen in her time. "Where have you taken me?" She asked accusingly, turning to face Helen.

"The carboniferous period, somewhere between 359 and 299 million years ago." Helen said leaning against a tall tree. "There's another anomaly to the south of here, hopefully its still open."

" _Hopefully._ " Avery said. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Take me home."

"Soon. But first I wanted to talk." Helen said walking away. Not wanting to be left alone in a place she didn't know or understand Avery followed after Helen.

After about an hour of walking Avery got tired of the quite between them. "How long 'till we reach the anomaly?"

"Not far now." Helen replied without looking back, leaving them in silence again. The forest seemed to stretch for miles, and from what she remembered, the forest of the carboniferous would cover almost every inch of the earth, apart from the vast oceans and lakes that dotted the land.

Avery saw something move beside her and turned to look for it, fearing it was another arthropleura, like the one that bit Stephen about a week ago. A black spider waited on a tree branch above her, fangs clicking. She flinched as it jumped towards her but it was plucked out of the air before it could reach her by a giant dragonfly. A meganeura. A several feet long Dragonfly with a 65 cm wingspan.

She watched in slight fear, and amazement, as it landed on a large rock on the edge of a small muddy pond. It started to consume the spider while it struggled in its grasp, but it could not get its inch long fangs into the Dragonfly. The dragonfly itself was an iridescent green-blue depending on the light as it moved. It wings were clear, with thick dried black veins creating a mosaic pattern on each of its four wings.

"Cool, huh?" Helen said standing beside her, hands holding tight onto her backpack. Avery should have guest by her demands to be allowed her bag that Helen would escape, as well as the others. Particularly her father. He could be so daft when it came to women, even now he was oblivious to Claudia's feeling for him. But she understood him as well. His wife, her mother, whom they had thought dead for 8 years, had suddenly appeared at the same time as the anomalies. It was enough to distract anyone from possible love interests.

"Yeah. Let's get going. I want to go _home._ " Avery said turning away from the prehistoric scene.

They walked on in silence for a few more minutes before a flash of lightning and the loud clap of thunder sounded high above, then the rain fell, heavy and thick leaving her soaked in seconds. "Come on we have to speed up." Helen yelled over the rolling thunder. "The high concentration of oxygen in the air will cause a forest fire if lightning hits anything."

After that they sprinted through the forest, dodging trees and jumping over fallen logs. Avery thought it was exhilarating, apart from the threat hanging above their heads. She was blinded for a second as a bright spark struck the tree beside her. The tree bark splintered sending charred pieces flying towards her. Moments later the tree caught fire, which quickly spread through the close-packed trees.

Helen broke into a sprint as the trees blazed around her, Avery at her heels. The air filled with smoke, clogging her lungs and eyes with the thick heavy air. She coughed and spluttered, half blind, as she raced behind the loud thumping of her mother's boots, or was that her heart?

She felt the heat as the flames licked at her skin, burning pieces of her clothes, when suddenly the ground gave in beneath them and they fell into deep water. Instincts kicking in after the initial shock of the cold water she kicked as hard as she could until her head broke the surface of the water.

Helen broke beside her and Avery swam after her as she headed towards the shoreline. She dragged herself onto a beach made out of brown and shades of grey pebbles. She laid on her back, just outside the reach of the water, and took in great lungful's of air, trying to clear her lungs of the heavy smoke. She coughed heavily and sat up staring at her mother.

Did Helen only ever bring danger and trouble now that she was back?


	21. Chapter 21- Talk

**Chapter 21- talk**

"Ok let's talk." Avery said after catching her breath. She wanted to go home before any more danger came. They could hear loud calls behind them, like deep bellowing moans. If they were the calls of herbivores, there would certainly be carnivores stalking them. She looked out at the water, legs drawn tight against her chest to conserve some warmth. The sun was warm but was cancelled out by the cold wind blowing over the empty beach.

She shivered, both out of cold and fear, when she saw a long fin cut through the water before a large blue-black shape came bursting out of the water, crunching down on another smaller shape. _Mosasaurs._ She thought. _That could have been me._

"You should join me. I missed you Avery, you were always my daughter. I've missed you and your father." Helen said facing her.

"This is a hell of a way to show it. You could have killed me. Twice!" Avery yelled, Scottish accent getting deeper as she stood up, her slim figure towering over the woman. " _So_ far all you have brought is pain and death. Living in the past is exactly the same, and it's even harder to look after yourself when you know very little about the true dangers out there or even what time period you're in. Just look at the arthropleurid, we thought they were non-poisonous but it turns out they are."

"But you've seen the beauty as well, the dragonfly was beautiful. There is always danger in beauty. Every rose has its thorns."

"Yes, but I rather look at the beauty somewhere I know. Knowing absolutely nothing scares me."

"It gets lonely being by yourself for years, living in constant fear knowing you only have yourself to rely on."

"You had 8 years to come back, and now you decide your lonely? I don't buy it." Avery said while crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at her mother.

"It's the truth. I've always loved you and your father."

"Even after you slept with his teaching assistant and _best friend_?" Helen flinched at the venom in Avery's tone. "Yes I know about you and Stephen. How could you betray us like that?"

"I don't want to talk about this." Helen finally said getting up. "It's clear you're not going to stay with me so I'll take you back to Nick."

"This will take you to the area with all the anomalies." Helen said pointing to the anomaly set within a large dark cave, lighting up the space and throwing dark menacing shadows across the walls.

"How do I know it's not some kind of trap." Avery said narrowing her eyes at her mother.

Helen sighed, "I would do nothing to hurt you and I don't want to lose you."

"You already did." Avery whispered, the word sounding loud in the quietness of the cave. She turned and walked through the anomaly, not trusting herself to look back.

* * *

"It's incredible." Nick said looking at a video recording of the anomalies behind the one in the fridge.

"It's the spaghetti junction of anomalies." Connor noted.

"There's no way I could follow them." Stephen said, he had no idea what anomaly Helen had dragged Avery through. They were gone by the time he had rushed through. But a few moments later she walked through the anomaly furthest away from them. Her clothes looked soggy and slightly burned, and black marks covered her bare arms, with little smudges on her face, but otherwise she was fine. "It would be like running into a Hall of Mirrors. At least Avery made in back in one piece," he shot a glance towards Avery who had changed into some spare clothes they had in the 4x4 "Sort of."

"Let me guess, not one sabre-toothed cat in sight." She stated as a statement.

"Not even a kitten."

"You tried to follow her." Claudia said looking towards Nick, they both knew she meant Helen.

"To stop her." He replied. "What possible reason could I have for wanting her to escape? I want answers more than anyone. I was also trying to stop her from taking Avery."

"Sure." Claudia said. "Did you see any saber-tooth cats when Helen dragged you through the anomaly?"

"No." Avery replied. "We ended up in the carboniferous then some other time period with mosasaurs." Avery had no idea what time period they were in was. It was a scary thought, not knowing the date as you jump from anomaly to anomaly. She wondered how her mother could have lived like this for 8 years, if the little time she spent here disorientated her. _Perhaps you just get used to it, or maybe you never do._

"What else happened?" Claudia asked, but before Avery could reply they heard chirping noises from the anomaly.

"Incoming." Ryan called out as he and the other soldiers raised their guns towards the anomaly. They all turned and walked a bit closer, while still staying behind the protection of the soldiers. They tensed as chirps and roaring noises could be heard before jumping as a bunch of dodos came bursting through. One knocked a soldier over while the rest scattered amongst the group.

"Round them up, everybody. Don't let them get out!" Nick instructed as they split up to chase after the dodo's.

Avery went with Claudia and stood on one aisle where a dodo was pecking at its shadowy reflection in the shiny, silver metal of the kitchen cupboards. She stood there as Claudia went around the other side and tried herding it towards her. The creature turned and started running away from her, but noticing Avery it tried going through a gap in the cupboards then turned and ran towards her realizing it lead to nowhere.

Avery slowly backed out leading it towards a door Nick was holding open that lead to an empty first aid office. She saw Connor, Abby, Stephen and a scientist surround another dodo, trying to figure out how to capture it without their fingers being snapped off by its hard beak. Stephen found a solution by placing a black plastic bin over it.

After Avery's and Claudia's dodo was in the office Nick lead another one in by distracting it with his jacket, a trick she had seen him use with other wild birds. "Go on, get in. In you go. In there." He closed the door behind. She heard the two dodo's already in squawked at each other.

"Woo hoo!" Connor said breathlessly as he leaned against an industrial bench.

The bin with the dodo under it moves, and Stephen grabs it and holds it down.

"They're great!" Nick whispered with a wide smile. It was wonderful to see ancient creatures that could only be imagined in flesh, based off observations in modern day animals and fossilized remains.


	22. Chapter 22- Dodo's

**Chapter 22- Dodo's**

Avery sat on the floor next to her father as the three Dodo's they managed to capture ran around them. They had long silver beaks that were rounded with a sharp point at the end and dark orange eyes. Their feathers were a mix of brown and grey, with white feathers on their breast and stomach. They had a small tail, two underdeveloped flightless wings and long four clawed toes.

They were quite playful as they circled around the pair, seemingly unafraid of them. One kept trying to jump at the window from the table but bounced of the glass confused as to why they couldn't get outside.

"Dodos." Claudia said skeptically staring at the birds.

"Oh, they're so cute." Abby said leaning against the doorway. Avery could see Ryan standing behind them peering at the Dodo's, even he wasn't immune to their charms.

"And so dumb." Connor noticed.

"They're not stupid, just trusting." Abby said looking back at Connor. "It's not their fault they became extinct."

"Funny, you weren't this sentimental about the gorgonopsid."

Connor looked at the hand on his shoulder and followed it up the arm to see Stephen, a massive smile on his face.

"What are you jealous Connor, I guess being a harmless, fluffy, extinct animal is more attractive to the ladies." Avery said, trying to pat one of the Dodo's but it snapped at her fingers. "Well partially harmless."

"Is that the lot?" Claudia asked Stephen.

"Yep, that's it." Stephen replied.

We better ship this lot back before we upset Darwin. Now everybody, um … grab a dodo." Nick said smiling at the group gathered around the window. Avery wished she could take a picture of what their faces looked like as they realized they had to get the Dodo's back through the anomaly.

Abby looked like she wanted to keep them exactly where they were out of cuteness, while Claudia wanted to keep them there so they wouldn't have to go through the hassle, a look Connor mirrored with a grimace, but Stephen was smiling widely as if the task exited him.

Avery snorted, of course he would be excited about the practically impossible task. She looked to her right and saw Nick was just as exited, she smiled to herself, she was secretly exited as well.

Avery stood opposite Nick as she and the soldiers crated a tunnel for the Dodo's to go through. The Dodo's were hesitant to go through and Avery hoped they were not sending the Dodo's back to the wrong time. They may end up in the right anomaly, and she was tempted to see where they went.

She looked over to see Stephen and Abby herding another Dodo towards them with a shiny metal lid. It backed up while pecking at it not sure what to make of the other bird approaching it. She looked towards Connor who was banging a metal ladle against his forehead before hitting a bit too hard. Stephen had told her before that he found them stripped down to their underwear. When she had asked Abby about it she said Connor just showed up with his stuff.

"Professor, we have a dodo down." She heard Ryan call out. They approached him and saw one of the Dodo's lying on the floor, motionless.

"Oh no." Claudia said as Nick and Stephen knelt beside the anomaly.

"Oh, how did that happen?" Abby asked, coming towards them.

"Maybe it ate one of the pies." Connor said looking down at his compass, she and Nick sent him a dirty look, disliking his carelessness. "Sorry." He said noticing the looks he was getting, he swallowed once then looked back at his compass.

"Poor little guy." Nick said petting the Dodo's neck. "We should do an autopsy to find out how he died."

"Could have been the shock." Stephen noted.

"Well we've both been through and we're alright."

"As far as we know." He looked up at Nick driving his point forward, and Avery wondered if the same could happen to them.

"Some animals might not be as versatile as us, though other creatures have come through safe." Avery noted grabbing some gloves offered to her by one of the scientists. She knelt down next to her father and placed a hand on the birds' beak. Hopefully whatever affected the Dodo wouldn't affect them.

"Cutter. The anomaly is fading." Connor called out. They looked up at him in shock, this might have been the last time they would see the spaghetti junction of anomalies, to put Connor words in. But Avery suspected that Nick was worried he might not find Helen again, she didn't know why he still loved her when she had abandoned her family. She wondered if she would feel the same towards Michael if he left for over 8 years.

* * *

At the Home Office Avery stood with Nick, Stephen and Abby as they surrounded the dead Dodo lying on the table. They were dressed in white cotton jumpsuits, with gloves and white coverings on their shoes to avoid contaminating the Dodo before they could find out what was wrong with it. At the end of the table stood several test tubes to collect any samples they came across.

They stood back as the bird twitched.

"Whoa, whoa. It's … it's muscle spasm." Stephen said hopefully.

"No. It's been dead for hours." Nick explained. "Okay." He said after the Dodo had not twitched again. They approached it more warily. As Nick is about to cut the top of the breast, something happens. The mouth of the dodo opens, and a screaming worm-like creature crawled out. Abby made a disgusted noise and everyone yells as it drops to the floor and starts wriggling after her. She backs up to the wall as the worm wiggled towards her.

"Stephen, grab that." Avery said pointing to a bell jar on one of the other tables in the room.

Stephen puts a bell jar over the top of the parasite and they breathed a sigh of relief as it stayed trapped in the jar. After a while it stopped moving, waiting for a little bit longer Stephen lifted the jar up. The creature did not move again.

"It must have already been dying." Avery noted. Picking up a small steel basin she brought it over and scooped it inside bring it closer to get a closer look. "Why don't you get Lester." Avery said looking up at Stephen. "I think we found what killed our dodo."


	23. Chapter 23- Autopsy and Relationships

**Chapter 23- Autopsy and Relationships**

While Stephen was getting Lester ready to enter the room a scientist came in with an x-ray on the Dodo. There were deep groves in some of the flesh from the movement of the worm, which could also be seen from the x-ray. "Maybe we should have checked the x-ray first before we started the autopsy." Avery told her dad. "it's quite visible on here."

When Lester had entered, dressed in the same garb as them, he stood across from the Cutters, next to Stephen. Nick took the bell jar off the dead creature and picked it up with some large tweezers. It was a marble color and made up of segments. At its mouth it had hundreds of sharp pointed teeth and two clasper like feelers.

"It looks like some type of larva." Stephen noted looking at the worm like creature.

"No, it's an adult. It's some kind of giant cestode." Nick told them then looked at Lester pointing to the grooves in the x-ray. "It's destroyed the internal organs and attacked the central nervous system."

"I thought the trick of being a good parasite was to live off the host creature without killing it." Lester said holding his hands crossed behind his back. Avery saw a blue shirt and a striped tie peeking out from under the white jumpsuit and Avery wondered if he ever wore anything else. His posture was one of control and dominance, an air he always carried around him. But he didn't seem malicious, just a no nonsense person, who often used snark to display his displeasure at something. She was reminded again of an alpha.

"That's true of parasite's living today. But where not dealing with creatures living in the present are we?" Avery asked. Lester raised an eyebrow and nodded. Stephen took the parasite from Nick and started looking at it with Abby.

"To shay."

"No, this one doesn't compromise." Nick continued on her explanation, "It enters the blood stream as larvae, it feeds off the host, and then it moves up the body to lay its eggs."

"Keeping itself alive just long enough to reproduce itself." Stephen added bringing the parasite closer to Lester, sharing a smile with Avery as he leaned away.

"And then mission accomplished, they both die together."

"Isn't nature wonderful?" Lester asked sarcastically.

"Some of the time." Avery bit back looking up through her hair, laughing as Lester sent her a dry look.

"Well I better go upstairs and finish some paperwork." Lester said as he started to unzip the jumpsuit.

"Well good luck, and have fun." Avery banted.

"Oh you guys have some as well. You have to sign some half dozen forms saying that you work for us now, and you may receive some pay. Though you can still keep your old jobs. Then you'll have to do start doing paperwork for everything we do." He smiled then walked away.

When Lester had left they turned back to the Dodo to finish the autopsy.

As Nick made the first incision as the base of the neck Avery really hoped there was not another parasite living inside the Dodo.

* * *

When they had finished the autopsy, finding nothing new, Avery, Nick, Stephen and Abby headed to a café near the home office, deciding to get some lunch. Connor had gone back to the university for one of his classes, and he felt a bit squeamish about dissecting animals.

They sat at one of the tables outside the café out in the sun. It was a nice little place with wooden tables and a few flowers on each table. It was directly opposite the home office and looked really out of place between the towering skyscrapers around it. But it was nice, and they had brilliant coffee.

"So tell me about Michael?" Nick said as they ate their respective lunches. Avery had a light soup, not wanting to fill up before dinner. They were having lunch quite late because of how long the autopsy had taken.

Avery grimaced wondering when he was going to bring Michael up. "He's just a boy I've been dating." Avery said trying to draw attention away from Michael.

"A boy she's been dating for a little over a year now. In fact, they're going out later tonight." Stephen cut in smirking as Avery glared at him.

"Oh, any why did you not tell me about him?" Nick asked staring at her.

"Because you and Stephen have scared off all my previous boyfriends, and I didn't want you doing it again. I really like Michael, his handsome, sweet, witty and a great guy." She explained having a sip of her drink. "Stephen wasn't even meant to find him, he just accidentally stumbled across us one time."

"Okay. But next time tell me. I swear I won't scare him off. I swear." He emphasized seeing her look. "But I want to meet him." Nick said with a pointed look over his coffee cup.

"Okay. Hey Abby what's going on with you and Connor." Avery said, steering the conversation off her and Michael.

"He's just staying at my place until his flats fixed up, that's all." Abby explained.

"Then why where you wearing minimalistic clothing?" Avery said.

Abby blushed for a moment before explaining. "The thermostats broken so it's quite hot in the flat."

"If you say so."


	24. Chapter 24- Tom

**Chapter 24- Tom**

A little while after lunch, when Abby had left to make sure everything was covered with the autopsy, they received a call from Connor about Duncan and a missing Dodo. Apparently they had kidnapped it when one of the Dodo's slipped out during the confusion of rounding up the other Dodo's.

They quickly walked across the road and explained to Lester about the situation. "Well what are you waiting for? Get what you need to get ready, I'll send captain Ryan to back you up."

When they got to the 4x4 the soldiers were already there waiting to follow. Avery hopped into the back while Nick drove and Stephen sat in the passenger's side.

* * *

They arrived in the back alley of a block of cream stone flats. They were in an industrious area and appeared to be made from old warehouses or factories.

"How infectious is this?" Claudia asked walking behind them.

"It's not a virus, it's a parasite." Avery explained.

"And Tom's the host?"

"Yeah."

"And we have to isolate him before he passes it on to anyone else." Nick interjected. He stopped Ryan at the double, sky blue doors to the flat. "Now whatever you do, when you go in there, don't let him come anywhere near you." Nick told him before they entered.

Connor arrived with Duncan just as Nick entered.

"Whoa, heavy." Duncan said. His open mouth and the slight fearful look in his eyes almost made Avery laugh, for someone who wasn't aware of the dangers it was a bit much.

"Are you the idiot who stole the dodo?" Claudia intercepted them at the door.

"There's no law against capturing extinct animals." Duncan intercepted back.

"You stole government property. That makes it treason." Claudia said with a final glare before walking inside, past Avery.

"That was a joke? Right?" Duncan stuttered back looking over his shoulder to Connor, who merely patted him on the shoulder and walked him through the door.

Connor pats him on the shoulder as they go inside.

Inside was quite large and cluttered with random stuff. There were fossils and other paraphernalia relating to shows and movies. They had a small tv and several computers, there was a large skylight in the roof, a wall covered with cartoon clippings from newspapers, and in the middle of the room, against a floor was a Hawaii themed bar bench, but with no alcohol behind it. On one of the walls was a wallpaper of a sunset on a beach.

The room looked ok but the floor was a rusty red and the walls were a mixture of colors. They walked into the room containing the dodo and found it under a small, single bed. There was a desert setting on one of the walls and piles of clothes in an open cupboard.

Ryan stood at the doorway, with Connor and Duncan behind him, gun loosely held in his hand, finger on the trigger in case it moved. Stephen and Nick crouched on the floor looking under the bed, while Avery stood on a wooden ladder next to them. Avery, Nick and Stephen could have used guns, but they decided not to, in case one of them accidently shot one of the creatures. It was dangerous, but the implications could be worse if a creature died when it was not supposed to.

"You know those movies when you think the killer is finally dead and then all of a sudden they just jump up again?" Stephen said not willing to move.

"Yeah, I hate those films." Ryan said, coming to crouch next to Stephen.

"Me too." Stephen and Avery told him. "After you." Stephen said turning to Nick.

Nick gave him a look as if to say _really!_ But Stephen was dead serious and made no movement to go closer. Finally after a moment of staring at his friend, he crawled towards the bed and hit the dodo on the nose. "It's dead."

"Are you sure?" Claudia asked, just arriving.

Nick hit it a couple of times on the head and the flightless bird made no movement. "Pretty sure."

Nick lifted the bed up to reveal the dodo lying on a bunch of dirty clothes. It had dark brown, black and white plumage and a thick hooked beak.

"Alright, bag it up. But be careful." Nick said looking at Stephen and Avery. Avery looked at the dodo in sadness and approached. She started to stroke the fur on its head, as if it could still feel it. Stephen came closer and did the same to the dodo's chest, sending a look to Avery, asking if she was okay. Avery nodded back and continued to stroke the dodo.

"One minute it was friendly, and the next it just went crazy." Duncan explained.

"The parasite changed the dodo's behavior to suit its own purposes." Avery said gesturing at the bird.

"Which were?" Claudia asked. Avery suspected she didn't know that much about how to deal with creatures, only how to deal with people.

"To pass itself on. That's why it bit Tom, so it could incubate its eggs in the new host." Stephen continued standing up.

"It's not safe to be around him." Nick said looking towards Connor. He had an almost betrayed look on his face. From the little time she had known him she felt he was a very loyal kind of person. It was a good trait that Avery admired, but sometimes it just caused more pain and trouble. "I'm sorry." Nick apologized as he and Stephen look at him sympathetically. "But maybe if we'd got to him straight away, then he'd have stood a chance."

"Our parasite is light sensitive," Avery noticed looking up, "it's why it hid under the bed and broke the light."

"So wherever Tom is, he's going to be trying to stay in the dark." Nick explained.

"He's probably at a hospital, It's where I would go." Avery stood up and turned towards Duncan. "Where's the nearest Hospital?"

"T-there's one just down the road, but I don't think he would go there. Too obvious a place to find him." Duncan whispered the last part, looking over his shoulder to Claudia.

"Boy, you guys are really big on your conspiracies." She left the room with Nick. They needed Lester to help find Tom.


	25. Chapter 25- Accusations

**Chapter 25- Accusations**

Nick, Avery, Claudia and Stephen stood in front of Lester's desk in his office, Lester was leaning on his desk, flipping through a file. Avery sat on a table next to Stephen as Nick and Claudia stood in front of her.

"Sorry, we really don't have time for this. We have to find him." Nick said as Lester casually looking through a file.

"So how exactly does the parasite pass itself on?" Lester said, ignoring the slight command in Nick's words and tone.

"Biting, in this case," Nick explained.

"but kissing would do just as well". Avery added in.

"Well, by the look of him, kissing isn't likely to be much of an issue." Avery wondered if Lester always had something to say about everyone, and if he did she wondered what he would say about her, she would ask him, if she wasn't afraid it was like walking into the lion's den. "I take it this thing is an automatic death sentence."

"If we can catch the victim during the parasite's incubation period, then maybe we have a chance of saving them." Nick said.

"But we're talking hours at the most. This thing's life cycle is unbelievably accelerated." Stephen added in, saying the facts as they were.

"And who knows how many people Tom could infect. Three, four. And if they bite three, four more in turn …" Claudia explained.

Lester interrupted her with a roll of his eyes "Yes, yes, I can do the maths for myself. Thank you. You know this is all Helen's doing. Unleashing a pandemic on us is just one more part of her twisted plan."

"What plan?" Nick asked confused.

"You tell me." Avery could tell Lester still didn't fully know whose side Nick was on, and honestly, she didn't know either.

"Helen hasn't done any of this on purpose. The dodos being contaminated is pure chance."

"Who knows what Helen's capable of. She's left us behind. All of us." Lester looked at Avery who turned her head away, biting her tongue. Lester could tell it was not to argue with him but to agree, and she didn't say anything as not to upset her father. Avery had made her disregard towards her mother quite vocal. He turned away from her and faced Nick. "I think you're the only person who can't admit it." He moved around his desk and sat down. "Doors open. Thank you. I suggest you all hurry up and find him."

Avery could see a slight fury in Nick's eyes and a slight tenseness to Stephens frame, both clearly angry at Lester's accusations towards her mother.

* * *

When they got to the hospital Stephen Pulled Avery aside as Nick and Claudia approached the desk to ask if Tom had come in. "Why didn't you try to deny Lester's statement. Helen's your mother for god's sake."

"She might be my mother, but I do not believe all these things are by accident. Most things yes, but Helen is somehow involved, I don't believe she wanted to see us out of the kindness of her heart. eight years she abandoned us for. eight. far too long to suddenly realize you are lonely."

"Is everything alright?" Claudia asked interrupting them.

"Yes." Avery said looking away, "come on let's go." Claudia sent a look to Stephen before they joined up with Nick.

As they walked to the room where Tom bit a doctor, Claudia looked back and noticed Avery trailing behind, a furrow between her brows. She slowed her speed to match Avery and leaned down to ask. "Are you ok?"

"Yes." Avery said looking at Claudia. "It's just bothering me how dad can just forgive mom for leaving us. I always admired how much dad loved mom, and I guess I still do, but it's just frustrating. She even abandoned Stephen, but he forgives her, maybe even more than dad." She looked at Nick and Stephen's back's. "Some part of me want to forgive mom, but I just can't."

"I don't blame you." Claudia said looking at Nick.

"I don't know if I could love Michael if he left me." She sighed and looked towards Claudia. "Your falling for him aren't you?" Avery said gesturing with her head towards Nick.

"No." Claudia scoffed.

"Hmm" Avery hummed a small smile on her face. Claudia couldn't ask what she meant as they arrived at the x-ray room.

* * *

The doctor was clutching and rubbing at his arm as they walked in. "That was quick." He said in surprise.

"Who were you expecting?" Claudia asked for them. For the technical stuff, they were fine, but Claudia was important for dealing with people skills, As Avery, Nick and Stephen were more used to dealing with each other and animals.

"You're from the Hospital of Tropical Diseases. I called." The doctor replied even more confused.

"Yes, yes, you did." Claudia lied. "Um, I'm Claudia Brown from the Home Office."

"What's going on?"

"A suspected case of rabies."

"No, this isn't rabies. I saw something on the scan. It was inside him."

"Work with us. Rabies sounds a whole lot better than 'we have no idea'."

"What's he done to me?" The doctor started to panic at Claudia's words. "There must be a vaccine or something."

"Your only hope is to have it surgically removed before it gets too advanced." Nick cut in, trying to ebb his confusion and fear, but failing.

"Look, we really need to find him, okay?" Stephen pushed. "So if you have any idea where he is, anything you could tell us would be very…"

The doctor interrupted him with a gasp. "I don't think he knows anything else." Claudia said. "We should go."

In a corridor of the home office they tried to figure out where Tom would go. Lester's men had no lead on him.

"We have to think like Tom. Now, where would he go?" Nick said.

"Well, we don't know if he's on foot, in a car or using public transport." Claudia said.

"We don't know anything. Our only real chance of tracking him down is if, or when, he attacks again, someone's going to raise the alarm." Stephen said, bouncing around ideas.

"That may take longer than you think because Tom isn't just an animal. He's a human being. He has willpower, he's going to fight this." Nick clarified, working with evolution and animals, knowing the difference was sometimes hard.

"Connor and Duncan might know, their friends after all." Avery suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, try them."

"Okay." Stephen walked away to find Connor and Duncan.

"Helen wouldn't do this to us. I know she wouldn't." Nick said, looking at Claudia.

Claudia and Avery just looked at each other before walking away.


	26. Chapter 26- Loss

**Chapter 26- Loss**

Avery sat next to Stephen, as he and Nick talked to Duncan who was sitting opposite. Connor was standing next to his friend, worried at the prospect of losing Tom. Avery was sure she would feel the same if Stephen was infected, despite his affair with Helen. At least he told her the truth, even if it came eight years too late.

"Okay. When Tom's in trouble, what's his first reaction?"

"Tom doesn't get in trouble." Connor said.

"He's not that sort of bloke." Duncan said, standing up for his friend.

"Then put yourself in his shoes. What's … what'll he be thinking? Where will he go?" Nick asked leaning forward.

"He'll be trying to find out what this whole conspiracy is about." Duncan said. He looked suspiciously at them, still not trusting of the group.

"There is no conspiracy." Stephen was annoyed at his continual insistence of a conspiracy.

"So, what's all this then? Meeting of the local Women's Institute? The CIA? The Freemasons? The Illuminati?" Avery almost laughed at Duncan's explanation. She never believed in wild theories that had questionable proof. "You people are always hiding the truth. Tom was right about everything. That's why we put the transmitter on you."

"What? You bugged me? Of course, you did. Because that's how you found the dodo, right?" Connor said in disbelief.

"Well, you were the one with all the secrets. SWAT teams, girlfriends…"

Connor started to check his pockets, searching for the tracking device. "Duncan, do us a favour, tell me where it is."

"It's on your bag. Inside Roswell." Duncan said rubbing his legs in nervousness.

"You sneaky little …"

"Wait, wait, wait. How did you track it?" Avery interrupted.

"Tom modified the Sat Nav on his Palmtop." Duncan said.

"Well the he's going to come here. If Tom wants answers he's going to follow the transmitter. He's coming to you." Nick said crossing the room. He stood next to Connor and patted his shoulder.

"No, not quite. The dodo swallowed it."

"The transmitters inside the dodo?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah." Duncan stuttered.

"And the dodo is with Abby." Stephen said with a glare. "You idiot. You've turned her into bait."

Avery ran after Stephen as he raced out of the room.

They arrived at Nick's office with Claudia to find the room empty. Ryan stands behind them with his gun at the ready.

"The dodo's gone." Nick said leaning against a table in the room, covered with various testing apparatus. "He must have taken it."

"And Abby." Stephen added.

"Look, we can try the transmitter. We have to get to him fast." Nick said walking out of the room, the others close behind him. "Ryan do we have anything that could track the signal?"

"Yeah. We have something in the car that could work."

* * *

"Good."

After finding out the signal lead to the stadium they quickly drove to the area. Ryan and his men ran out onto the stands first, weapons pointed at Tom.

"I've got a shot! I can take him out!" Ryan calls out from in front of Nick.

Connor ran forwards and put himself between Tom and the guns. Duncan stayed on the steps of the stands. "No! Don't shoot him!"

"Connor, what are you doing?" Claudia asked, thinking Connor had gone mad.

"Just, please, don't shoot him!" Connor pleaded, his arms raised above him.

"Connor, get out of the way." Stephen yelled, his own and Avery's guns trained on Tom.

"All right, let him try. Let him try." Nick conceded. Avery lowered the gun slightly but had her finger ready on the trigger. She didn't want to shoot Tom, but if he made a move to attack Abby or Connor she might need to.

Connor turned around to where Tom still has Abby pinned to the ground. The lasers from several guns played around Tom's head and shoulders. Tom kneeled over Abby, holding tight to her beige jacket. He was sweaty and shaking, a look of terror on his face.

"Tom. Tom, it's me." Connor slowly turned around slowly and talked as if Tom was a startled and dangerous creature. Avery knew it wasn't too far off. "Let her go, mate. Easy. Easy! Easy. You remember Thursday nights, don't you? Battlestar Galactica, Blakes 7? Pepperoni pizza?"

"Connor?" Tom said scared. Staring deep into Connor's eyes.

"Yeah. They were good times, weren't they? You can fight the dark side, mate. You really can."

Tom relaxed his grip on Abby and she scrambles up and to where Claudia, Avery, Nick and Stephen are standing.

"You too, Connor. Move away. He will kill you" Ryan called.

"No he won't. He's my friend." Connor dropped his hand and crouched down next to his friend talking softly. "You come with me. We can … we can help you."

"It was a conspiracy, wasn't it, Con?" Tom said just as softly. Avery could see the fear of an animal knowing their about to die in Tom's eyes.

"Big time. Right to the top." Connor's voice was watery with grief.

"Was there any mind control?"

"Yeah."

"Brilliant. Brilliant."

"Connor, back away!" Ryan shouted as Tom's eyes began to glow.

"Connor!" Avery and Abby yelled out, wanting to run down, but afraid it would startle Tom.

Tom fell forwards into Connor's arms. Connor grabbed him and held him steadily in his arms. "It's okay. You're okay."

Tom slumps down, then looks up at Connor. His eyes were wet with unshed tears and he was shaking out of fear. "They tried to take me over, but I fought them, Con. I fought them."

"You did a really good job."

"I'm a hero."

Connor nods. Tom closed his eyes, and slipped from Connor's arms. Tom lay still on the ground, silent and dead. Avery didn't know how she knew but she just did.

Abby clinged to Stephen as he lowered his gun, and Nick walks down the steps to Connor. Connor stayed crouched next to Tom until Nick approaches him, he stands in front of Nick with red and watery eyes.

"I can't do this anymore." Connor admitted defeatedly.

"Come here." Nick grabbed his arm and moved him away from Tom slightly. "We need you."

"If I hadn't been involved, Tom would still be alive."

"No, there's a handful of people in the whole world that know what's going on here, what we're grappling with, and you're one of them. That would have made his day. He'd have loved it. So you can't bail out now. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, come here." Nick pulled Connor into a hug. Everyone else, including Duncan, stands still, staring at Tom, as Connor closes his eyes and starts to cry.

 **A/N sorry for the late update, year 12 is way harder than i expected it to be. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but i cannot promise consistent updates.**


	27. Chapter 27- Dinner

**Chapter 27- Dinner**

 **A/N Sorry about the wait, I am working on the next chapter as well. Year 12 is rough, there is so much work and not enough free time, I really am trying but it's just hard to concentrate on this so be patient. But thanks for those continuing to read, and as always don't forget to review.**

* * *

Nick drove Connor and Abby back to their flat, leaving Avery to get dropped off at her apartment by Ryan.

Realising it was getting late she sent a quick text to Michael; _Hey I'm free tonight. Still feel like going out?_

 _Yeah sure. I'll pick you up around five :)_

 _Why so early?_

 _You'll find out soon ;)_

 _Oh and where something comfortable and practical._

Avery chuckled. He still wouldn't tell her the surprise.

"What are you laughing about?" Ryan asked at they neared her place.

"Oh, just something my boyfriend said."

"It that the same one I heared Nick telling Claudia about?"

"Yep. He's taking me out for dinner tonight."

"Well I hope you have a good night."

"Thanks Ryan, I'll see you tomorrow." She hopped out of the car and got inside. Changing quickly and putting on some eyeliner and lip gloss she settled down on the couch with a book. It would be an hour until Michael came.

* * *

When Michael arrived, she was confused when they drove up to a shooting gallery. "I thought we were going out to dinner?"

"We are. Just after, I wanted to give you your surprise now."

She gave him a hug and a quick kiss as they headed inside. "Thankyou."

* * *

Becker noticed Avery with someone as he walked into the shooting gallery. It was one of the only shooting places open this late.

"Hey Becker." Avery said as he approached a booth next to her. "How's the leg?"

"It's better now, I just have to be careful so I'm off missions for a little while." He said.

"Who's this Avery? And what was that about missions?" Her companion said.

"Michael this is Becker, Becker this is the boyfriend I told you about. Becker works at the same office I do. I told you I work at the home office as a secretary. Nothing special." Avery sent Becker a look, silently telling him Michael didn't know about her job. This made Becker even more curious about what she did, if she couldn't even tell her own boyfriend.

"Yeah. I've met her around the office. I didn't know you could shoot." Becker said to Avery, looking at the gun in her hand.

"Yeah, not only that I'm a great shot." She said with pride.

"Think you can beat me?"

"Yes."

"Prove it." Becker said crossing his arms and standing back. "Ladies first."

Avery stepped towards the booth and aimed her gun steadily at the target. With six quick shots, she hit the innermost circle of the chest.

She stood back and looked at Becker, gesturing for him to have a try.

Becker admired her shot for a quick moment before stepping forward, raising his gun to eye lever. He hit the middle of the target, the same as Avery.

Avery whistled. "I guess we're about the same."

"Yeah." Becker agreed turning towards her and placing the gun down. "Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

"My dad and his assistant Stephen. They usually use tranquilizers but sometimes they need something stronger."

"That's pretty good."

They stayed at the shooting gallery for a little longer, until Michael said it was time for dinner.

"It was nice meeting you Michael." Becker said gripping the shorter man's hand. "Maybe I'll see you aroud the office Avery?"

"Yeah sure. I have a feeling I'll be around there for a while." Avery said goodbye, then they headed towards the restaurant. It was a small Italian place; beautifully decorated.

"So how's work been going?" Michael asked as they sat at a small table on the balcony of the building. It was a surprisingly warm night, and the sounds of the town bustling beneath created a nice atmosphere.

"Same old." Avery said dismissing him.

"Well your working at the home office. There must be some interesting things going on there?"

"Not really." Avery said dismissively. "How have your courses been going?" Avery said trying to change the subject.

Michael sighed placing his fork down. "Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Dismiss anything that comes up about work. And I saw the look you gave Becker. Why are you lying to me?" He pushed, standing up to face her.

"Just leave it please. I don't want to fight." Avery grabbed his hand, but he slipped it out of hers and got up.

"I can't. Just let me think about it for a few days. I'll call you." He turned, dropped some money on the table and left, not looking back.

Avery quickly paid the check and rushed out hoping to catch him. She saw him get into his car and drive away. Angry at his overreaction she hailed a cab home to her apartment.


	28. Chapter 28- Time with friends

**Chapter 28- Time with friends**

She called Stephen later that night, and he arrived a little under an hour later. When he arrived he saw her sitting on the couch, a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of her and a bowl of choc chip ice cream in her lap. He took his shoes off at the door and sat down next to her, pulling her into a comforting hug.

She told him about her problems with Michael, and how it was hard for her to keep this secret. It was just too big, and if she didn't tell him soon their relationship would be over for good. The unpredictability of the anomaly meant it could open at any time, making it harder to hide her sudden need to disappear.

"That's why we should tell everyone about what is happening." Stephen said.

Avery sat up a little and looked him in the eyes. "No, it will cause problems. There could be mass hysteria."

"I thought you didn't like having to keep this secret?" Stephen said.

"I may not like it, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with the decision. I trust my dad to make the choice. If he wants to do it then I will tell, but for now let's keep it a secret."

"We shouldn't if I was out in the public I would want to know the truth. It's not up to us to choose if it should be kept a secret or not."

"But for now, it is. Maybe we can tell people when we understand the anomalies better, but it would cause even more panic if we told people now, and they knew we have no idea how to predict or control the anomalies."

"I guess your right for now. Come on." Stephen stood up pulling Avery with him.

"What?" Avery asked confused.

"Let's go out for a drink. We haven't done that in a while."

"But I have Uni tomorrow. My end of year exams are coming up and if I pass them I'll finish my bachelor degree."

"Come on just one drink. I swear."

"Okay." Avery agreed, grabbing a coat from behind the door. The night could still be salvaged.

* * *

With a pounding headache Avery wished she had not gone out last night. Class had been hell for her, as the headache made it hard to concentrate, but she still got the necessary notes down. She shared the same course with Michael, but he refused to talk to her. She tried catching up with him afterwards, but he had left by the time she got outside.

She huffed with annoyance as she walked to her father's office. When she arrived, she saw her dad sitting at his desk aborting through a pile of papers. "Hey dad. What are you up to." She sat on the desk in front of him, facing away.

"Not much. How are things with Michael? Stephen told me what happened." Nick said placing his papers down. He came around the desk and sat next to her, offering her support.

"Don't really know at this point." She leaned her head on his shoulder. She saw a broken fossil in front of her, stuck together by hardened molding clay, colored to match the rest of the fossil, but a shade lighter. She had broken it when she was younger. It was the first fossil Nick had given her, it was a brachiopod, a small mollusk like creature. She was eight and so exited she had to bring it to school.

It broke at the start of lunch, a boy in her class had accidentally dropped it. She picked it up as fast as she could and ran to the art room. She knew they had some clay because they were making sculptures in their next period. She squeezed both sides of the broken fossil onto the clay, sculptured it and placed it in the furnace.

She laughed at the memory, catching her dad's attention. "What are you laughing at?"

Avery lifted her head up and pointed to the brachiopod lying on the table in front of her. "Remember when I did that?"

Nick chuckled as well. He hopped off the table and picked up the small fossil. "Yeah, you were in so much trouble when Helen and I were called into the principal's office."

"I had only just finished painting it when the art teacher came in. She was so wild. I was hoping you would never notice, she just had to ruin that plan."

"Yeah she did. You were quite the troublemaker when you were younger."

"Still am if I recall. I still followed you to the first anomaly site." Avery hopped of the table and gave her father a quick hug. "Well I better get going. I have another lecture in about three minutes. Compared to the creatures coming out of the anomalies, class is a piece of cake.

"See you then."

Avery waved a quick hand then ran outside.

* * *

On her way, she ran into Connor. His head was down, and he wasn't paying attention to much around him. "Hey Con. Where are you headed?"

"I'm headed to a geology lecture. We have the same one." Connor said putting his head up and walking straighter. His mouth turned into a small smile as they walked.

"Yeah. I guess I never realized. We weren't really friends back then huh."

Connor came to a stop and Avery stopped as well in confusion. "Where friends?"

"Of course, you bloody idiot. You don't survive several impossible time crises' without becoming friends."

"Does you voice always turn a bit Scottish when you raise your voice." Connor gave her a big toothy grin.

Avery hooked her am through his. Walking forward with him. "Now come on we're going to be late if you keep stopping like this."

* * *

Abby had called her after Uni had finished. She wanted to know if Avery had any experience to handle animals. Avery wondered if she just wanted someone to hang out with. Tom's death was hard on all of them, and it was why Avery found it hard to tell Michael. What if he ended up like Tom?

She could never live with herself if she caused that death.

"So what do you want help with?" Avery asked when she arrived at wellington zoo. She went there occasionally for research, but she couldn't remember if she had seen Abby there.

"Just housekeeping I suppose. Feeding the animals, checking how they are." Abby leaned forward and whispered "clean up after them."

"Okay. Where do we start." Avery said back.

"Now I guess. You don't mind, do you?"

"No. Not at all. I love animals. I'm hoping to join dad as one of his research assistants. Study wild animals and how they show features of their ancestors."

"That's cool. Well the zoo could use some volunteers, just got to ask my boss." Abby said as they walked through the zoo. She saw a pair of lions lying together near a pond. Like the creatures that came through the anomaly, they were alien to this environment.

"That would be great."

They chatted as moved through the zoo. Sharing what they knew about each animal, and Abby giving Avery some pointers on how to look after some of the creatures.

They ended up in the seal enclosure as their last stop. They sat near the edge of the pool as the seals swam under the water in front of them. They each had a can of cola, of which Avery's was half empty from when a seal had accidentally bumped it with its tail. Avery sat there half soaked.

"I warned you Flipper is a cheeky one." Abby said laughing next to her.

"Yeah, well, whatever." Avery sputtered, wringing her hair out on the ground next to her. "And who names a seal Flipper?"

Abby shrugged. "Our boss did. He is terrible with names. We have a bear he's name Ted as well."

Avery looked at her with a brow raised. "Ted you've got to be joking me."

"No." Both laughed at that.

"Thanks for inviting me. With everything that's happening lately it's nice to have a nice day." Avery turned to Abby and smiled.

Abby mirrored her smile. "A nice normal day."

Avery groaned. "Now you've jinxed it."

"What?"

"You've jinxed it. Now I'm going to get a call soon."

Abby looked at her skeptically. "Don't tell me your suspicious."

"Yes I am. Connor would agree with me."

"Yeah, but he's Connor." Abby sighed. "He is very annoying. He keeps leaving his boxer shorts all over the floor and he never makes me breakfast when he's made his own."

Avery chuckled. "Well you'll miss him if he moved out."

"Would not." Abby scoffed suddenly looking away.

Avery was about to retort when her phone called. "Hello? Avery speaking." Avery quickly got up, straightening out her wet clothes.

"Okay, I'm with Abby we'll be there in twenty." Avery hung up and sent a look down to Abby who was looking up at her. "Told you, you'd jinx it."

"What?" Abby asked.

"There's been another incursion near John's lake. A woman had her leg crushed. She was carried away in an ambulance, rambling about a giant spiky reptile."

"Couldn't it just be shock."

"Probably, but we should check it out just in case." Avery stretched a hand down and helped Abby up.

"The area around John's lake is huge. It'll take all night to search for the anomaly."

"Yeah. And it also means I won't be changing out of these clothes any time soon. Do you have a car?"


	29. Chapter 29- Spikey reptile

**Chapter 29- Spiky reptile**

The lake was a popular camping spot in the summer. The lake was more than one hundred kilometers in diameter, and was great for fishing. She tried fishing with Michael once but she found she couldn't sit still enough for a fish to bite.

Now the lake was empty, the area around it had been cleared after the attack happened. A group of soldiers had already been sent out to look for any trace of the anomaly or the creature that may have come through.

She approached Claudia who was talking to Nick about what the creature may be.

"Well it could be anything. The girl was in too much shock for us to get a clear description." Nick said.

"Were there any tracks or other signs left behind by the creature?" Avery intercepted.

"There are some near where the girl was found." Claudia lead them over towards Stephen who was looking at some bushes near a collapsed tent. The tent was muddy and broken in several places as if it had been stepped on. Avery hopped no one had been inside when that had happened.

"Stephen what have you found?" Nick asked squatting next to him.

"The footprints are wide and circular in nature with four dull claw marks. Also these bushes have been chewed on."

"The creature is probably a quadruped herbivore." Abby chimed in. She had seen similar tracks with the elephants back at the zoo.

"And quite heavy too considering how deep these tracks are." Nick added as an afterthought. "Claudia tell the men to be careful. The creature may be heavily armored and they will attack if they feel threatened."

"Creatures." Avery added.

"Pardon?" Claudia said.

"Creatures. There is more than one set of tracks I would say there are at least two. One is a kid, some of the prints are smaller." Avery had walked to another set of tracks further away from the tent. The tracks overlapped, and where slightly different in their size.

There was a crackle from Claudia's radio and she lifted it to her mouth. "Say that again… Ok we'll make our way over." She put the radio in her pant pocket and turned to face them. "That was Ryan they think they found the creatures. Their saying its quite bulky and low to the ground and at the end of the tail there's a thick club like appendage."

"Let's go." Nick said.

* * *

They saw two ankylosaurs grazing on the low shrubs. One was about twenty-five feet long and its back was taller than Nick. The other came just up to her waist, and was cowering close to the adult. Both were broad-beaked herbivores, heavily armored with bony horns, plates, studs running along its head and back, over bony plates, with a clubbed tail.

The older one was watching them wearily, snorting when one of the soldiers came too close.

"Back away slowly everyone. We're making it nervous." Nick said warning some of the soldiers back.

Avery was reminded of the first creature they came across, a scutosaurus from the Permian era. This was younger by a geological standpoint. It was from the late cretaceous.

"I think we have it from here Ryan." Avery said. Ryan looked to Claudia, and when she nodded, he told the other soldiers to fan out and keep looking for the anomaly. Three were left behind for extra protection, but Avery doubted their guns could penetrate the ankylosaurs thick armor. If they were to fire they would need to aim for the soft parts of its belly.

She joined her father and Abby as they kneeled a couple of meters from the dinosaur, making sure to say in its eyesight.

"Can you believe it's our first dinosaur?" Avery said smiling widely.

"No. Isn't it wonderful." Nick said. There was a slight gleam in his eye as he watched the young one eating beside the older.

"First dinosaur. What about the other creatures we came across?" Abby asked confused.

"Well the first two we came across were from the Permian era. Ancestors of the dinosaurs, though they were reptiles. It's the same for the mosasaur, it's a marine reptile. No dinosaur lived in the sea." Nicked replied.

Abby nodded in understanding. "They must be cold though. Their probably not used to this weather."

They could see the warm air breathed out by the creatures in the sunlight. The younger one was moving around it slowly. It was groaning in a high-pitched wail, perhaps complaining about the cold to the older one.

"Yeah. We should try and get them back to the Anomaly soon." He stood up and walked over to Claudia. "Have Ryan and the others found the Anomaly yet?"

"Not yet." Claudia replied.

"Well keep looking."

"What if the Anomaly has closed already?" She said nervously.

"Then we'll need to contact Lester. Try and get them out of the cold as soon as possible."

Nick watched as the younger Ankylosaur approached Claudia. It snuck up behind the brunette and bumped its head into her legs. With a small shriek Claudia jumped back, Nick catching her.

The creature started making sounds, rubbing its head against her. Nick tried to hold back her laughter as Claudia tried, and failed, to push the creature away.

Nick had another idea, and with a small smile he crouched down in front of the ankylosaur and placed his hand on its head. The ankylosaur pushed his head more against him. Nick was reminded of the mother and daughter Rhino pair he met in Africa a few years ago. The little one kept bumping into him as well, and their caretaker said it was out of curiosity.

Avery approached as well, crouching next to Nick. Tentatively she reached out and could feel the toughness of its bony head, and the spikes coming off it. She had in her hand some of the shrubs the mother was eating and held it out to the young one. It sniffed it quickly before snapping ripping some it out of her hand with its bony beak. It may have been small but it was still bulky and strong.

She watched the young one's tail move as it ate. It had a big round boulder looking club on either side of its tail. She watched out of the corner of her eye as the older one approached. With its head it nudged the younger one away slightly, before ripping the rest of the shrubs from Avery's hand.

"They don't even seem threatened by us." Nick remarked. The younger one had gone back to him when the mother wanted Avery's attention.

"Well she is bigger than us. And so far, we haven't done anything to appear as if we are a danger." Abby added walking over. She stood next to the crouched Avery and lightly ran her fingers over the mothers neck. "I hope we can get them home soon. I don't think Lester has anywhere to place these two."

"He'll find somewhere." Claudia added. "You may not get along with Lester too well, but he is resourceful and good at his job."

"Wow!" They heard a shout and turned towards the sound and saw Conner there grinning at the two ankylosaurs. As he approached Nick the younger one turned to him and tilted its head. "Hello little one." He said. Slowly he placed its hand under its chin and started to scratch the leathery hide. The Ankylosaur let out a happy shrill and pushed more into his hand.

Avery was happy to see that Connor was still able to smile, and she knew the others were too. They stayed there for a little while feeding and petting the two dinosaurs.

* * *

 **A/N You know how Abby and Connor have their own pets. I was also thinking of having one for Avery. My favorite ideas so far are a Raptor or a bird-like dinosaur like a microraptor or archaeopteryx. Currently the idea is up in the air. It would be great to hear what you would like.**


	30. Chapter 30- Home

**Chapter 30- Home**

Avery sat watching the pair of Ankylosaur in the approaching dusk. Connor was grinning widely as the little one ran around him, occasionally headbutting him as Connor held its food out of its reach. Abby approached and snatched the leaves out of his hand and held it towards the Ankylosaur. Musing silently for a moment she grabbed her phone out of her pocket and took a few quick pics of the Ankylosaurs.

She didn't need to photograph them as a scientist from the home office was taking multiple pictures for research, even though he was too scared to approach the heavy creatures. She more took the pictures for her own memories; to capture the joy on Connor and Abby's faces. There was too much sadness lately and she was glad to see Connor happy despite Tom's death two days ago.

She remembered back to earlier in the day, the time she spent with her friends and family. It was peculiar how quickly she had formed a strong friendship with Connor and Abby. Avery didn't have many friends, preferring to spend time with Stephen and her father. It was a welcome change.

Avery thought back to her fight with Michael. Avery wished he could be here with her, but she was not allowed too. She did not know how he would react, she did not know how to react half the time with these creatures from the past. She would not mind the quiet times like these, when none of them were fighting for survival against the world's oldest creatures. She wondered if Stephen was right, perhaps it would be better for everyone to know about the creatures.

No, it was a selfish thought. It might make things better between her and Michael, but it would create panic and confusion, just like Lester kept telling them. Maybe she would talk to Claudia, see if she could get away with telling Michael about the anomalies.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear Abby until she was over Avery's shoulder. "Nice picture. Could you send it to me?"

Avery jumped and turned her head towards her. "Sure." Avery thought back to her conversation in the café. "Why do you want it?"

"Because it's a good picture."

"Or is it because you secretly like him?"

Abby raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "No, and I doubt this is the last time I will be saying this, we are just friends."

"Who happen to be living together?"

"Yes."

"I se-." Avery was interrupted by the approach of Ryan.

"We've found the anomaly." Ryan said approaching them. Seeing the Ankylosaurs with the team he raised his gun and aimed it at the pair.

Stephen came forward and moved his aim down. "Don't. They're not attacking. Anyway, your bullets won't pierce its armor." Ryan lowered his gun but still had his finger on the trigger.

"Where's the anomaly?" Avery asked. She stood up and dusted off her jeans. She smiled as the baby Ankylosaur whined before wondering off to one of the others.

Ryan took his eyes off the dinosaurs. "A little off that way." He pointed behind her where the trees slowly started to spread apart. The sun dipped between the branches, the cloudless sky promising a warn night.

"We need to get them down a steep hill. There were tracks leading up it. Looked like they struggled a bit." Stephen cut in from beside Connor. The younger ankylosaur had wondered over them and looked like it was trying to push Connor over.

"How are we going to manage that?" Avery asked incredulously. "They're going to be hard to move. We can't fit any of the trucks needed to move them between the trees. Any ideas Nick?"

Nick surveyed those around him and looked off towards the direction Ryan pointed. "Stephen go see if you can find a less steep path down to the anomaly. The rest of us will try to grab some of the scrub they are eating and see if they will follow us."

* * *

It was remarkably easy to get the Ankylosaurs to follow them. However, it was going to be difficult getting them to the anomaly, which lay at the bottom of a small, yet steep valley. Nick decided he and Stephen would go down and lead the Ankylosaurs, being careful to not stay directly in front of them should they slip or stumble.

Ryan told his soldiers to clear away from the bottom of the valley for the same reason. With all their thick plating the Ankylosaurs would weigh over a ton, even the baby one.

The mother was first to reach the anomaly. Once she saw it she called back to the younger one and walked through, probably recognizing it as somewhere warmer and more familiar.

As if sensing that perhaps this was goodbye the baby Ankylosaur headbutted Connor and Avery, who had been leading it. Avery knelt and gently scratched under the baby's chin before standing up with a small smile, and Connor gave it one last pat on the head and pushed it toward the valley. Stephen came over and laid a hand on her shoulder as they watched the Ankylosaur scurry through the anomaly. It called loudly at them before running after its mother.

After moving through Ryan's soldiers took position around the anomaly again. "Avery let's go." Claudia said as Avery sat down at the top of the valley. When Avery stayed on the ground she sat down beside her. "What's wrong? Still thinking about Michael?"

"Yeah. He knows I've been lying to him about our job. We met a soldier, Becker, from the home office, at the shooting range he took me to after what happened to Tom. Becker said some things about the home office and Michael got interested with what I do at my job. He knows I'm not telling him the complete truth." Avery told her.

"It's hard. I know. But it is for his safety, even if he does not know it. Look, I'll talk to Lester see what I can do."

"Thanks." When Claudia nodded, Avery added with a whisper. "Also, I've seen the way you've been looking at my dad." When Claudia sent her a look Avery divulged. "Don't leave it too late. I know Helen's returned, but he doesn't trust her."

"He may not trust Helen, but I can tell he is still in love with her." Claudia muttered.

"Don't let that stop you."

Claudia nodded with a faint smile and stood up. "You coming?"

Avery shook her head. "No. I'm going to stay here a little longer. See if I can help some of the scientists with their work; stay as backup if any more creatures turn up."

"Keeping busy?" Claudia said.

"Yes." Avery didn't want to go home. Maybe a night out in the wild would allow her to think.

"Then I'll see you later." Claudia said. She walked over to Ryan and talked to him for a moment before walking in the direction the others had left.


	31. Chapter 31- Thoughts

**Chapter 31- Thoughts**

Avery brought her knees up and rested her hands on them as she watched the setting sun. Shadows crept over the valley, never touching the anomaly. _As if they feared it,_ Avery thought. It was an unusual thing that reached across time and space, some of the creatures they came across were not even in the same region as England. _The Gorgonopsid is more native to Africa which was part of the southern hemisphere during the Permian era._

A few moments after the rest of the group went home some soldiers came to guard the anomaly to make sure nothing came out, or come in. A pair of scientists covered head to toe in white gear also arrived to see if the anomaly was any different during the night. There were still so many questions surrounding this mystery.

Avery joined the pair after a few pleasantries. They did scans on the electromagnetic field around the anomaly that attracted metal towards it. Avery almost lost a pen when she came too close. Avery disengaged from the pair after a while. _This was more Connor's area of expertise._ Avery was more studying biology and biochemistry than the more technological and physics based side of science.

She decided she might head back home instead to try and get more sleep. She almost turned to walk back to the carpark when she realized that she had come with Abby, leaving her carless. Avery huffed before sitting down again facing the anomaly. Perhaps she could go back to the home office with Ryan after he finished his shift, then she could catch a taxi back to her flat.

After finishing a round around the perimeter set up by his soldiers Ryan headed back to the anomaly to check up on the soldiers guarding it. When he returned he noticed Avery sitting with some of the soldiers talking.

"… we were all huddled on top of the safari jeep. Just the three of us while the rest of the students were sleeping in their tents while this massive Rhino kept nudging it. Stephen had his gun out trained on the Rhino, but we didn't want to hurt him. He wasn't attacking us, so at first, we were confused. Until this other male approached, and the Rhino chased it off. It turns out it thought the jeep was a female and was trying to court us, before it realized it wasn't a female or it thought it was not interested and it moved away."

The soldiers laughed at her story, and Ryan watched on as they exchanged stories of their own. After a while the soldiers walked away to do a perimeter search. "Hey, my shift is up, do you still want a lift back to the home office?"

"Sure." But when she made no move to get up Ryan sat next to her.

"What's troubling you?"

"Its just my relationship with my boyfriend Michael, keeping the secret of all this is creating a rift. I'm just not sure how I can fix things. Before now there were no major secrets between us, but now I'm keeping something huge and Michael is not talking it well. Neither am I." Avery looked at him side long, silently asking for advice from a special ops soldier who was probably used to keeping secrets.

Ryan realised this and shifted to face her. "It's not easy, I'll tell you that much, and I've had my own experience with relationships ending because of the secrets I needed to keep. Sometimes it gets easier, but sometimes it gets worse. They can start accusing you of worse things, like sleeping with other people. I wish I could tell you everything will be fine, just tell him that the secret has to do with your job, and how he takes it is entirely up to him, it's not on you."

"It's getting late. We should be going." Avery said getting up and dusting her pants. "You know I need to bring my own car next time, this is becoming a habit." She nodded thanks as she looked down at him.

Ryan nodded back getting up beside her. "At least it's not too far from your place."

Avery locked the door behind her before collapsing on her bed. The day had been long and tiring. _I hope there are no anomalies tomorrow. Just one day. Sure, they are exiting, but they are also stressful. They are tearing a rift between me and Michael._

Avery picked up her phone and checked for any messages from Michael. It was blank, no reply to the numerous messages she sent him earlier in the day. With a sigh she got ready for bed. Changing into one of Michael's old soccer shirts and a pair of shorts she settled down in front of the tv when someone knocked on the door.

When she opened the door, Michael stood there. Drops of water speckled his shirt and hair, telling her a slight drizzle had started outside.

"Hey Avery." He said looking around. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." Avery stepped back from the door and gestured inside. "Come in."

Michael nodded and sat on the couch facing the tv. After closing the door Avery joined him. Silence sat between them, unlike at the anomaly site after everyone left this silence was palpable and heavy. Silence that spoke of how far things have become. She used to be able to talk to him for hours about anything, but now she was unsure of what to say.

Avery was the first to break the silence. "Did you get any of my texts?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you reply." Avery said as her annoyance started to rise. "I tried reaching you several times."

"I needed time alone to think. I understand I overreacted, but you wont even give me a clue about what is going on." Michael said taking her hands.

Avery rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand, debating whether to continue telling him she was just doing desk work or tell him the truth. After a while she decided to conceive at least some truth and heed Ryan's advice. "It's got to do with the work I'm doing, I'm not just working at the home office doing desk work, I am doing something else as well, but I'm not allowed to talk about it."

"Finally, some truth. I understand if you can't tell me because of your work what you are doing, but now I know its not something else you are keeping from me." He smiled, and Avery could tell he wanted to know what Avery did at work, but he wasn't mad. "Especially when I met Becker." Michael conceded.

"What. No, we did meet at work and he stopped two guys from hitting on me, but that was the second time I met him at the shooting range." After a quick thought Avery smiled sweetly. "Why, where you jealous Michael?"

"No." Avery stared at him expectedly. "Fine yes."

"Well there is no need to worry. He is just an acquaintance. Plus, I have you, so why would I need someone else?" Avery tilted her head and smiled. Michael huffed out a laugh then kissed her.


	32. Chapter 32- Moving on

**Chapter 32- Moving on**

 **A/N: So, so sorry for the long wait. I didn't realise it has been more than a month since I last updated. This chapter will be another filler, and maybe the next one will be as well. Because if you notice at the start of episode five in season one Abby say's Connor has been at her flat for a month. Since he only moved in the episode Tom got killed that means there was a months gap between the episodes which I hope to fill in.**

It had been a week since the last anomaly, which was a welcome change considering the final exams were coming up in over a month's time. She didn't understand how Connor could be so chilled out about them. _Perhaps he thinks he has a permanent job now that the anomalies have started to appear._ But Avery was not so certain.

The anomalies seemed to have appeared out of thin air and could disappear just as quick. She considered the fact that perhaps the anomalies have been around for a while, and if there had been stories of them people would likely believe them to be a hoax. Just like her father first thought when Connor brought the story of the Gorgonopsid to them.

Even if the anomalies had appeared she couldn't be certain Lester would still pay them to do the job requires. Eventually he may find other people he considers more reliable and replace her dad and the rest of them.

She hoped he would continue to employ them, she liked the new friends she had made. Abby was a strong female, one who Avery loved spending time with, whether it was at the zoo or in the gym where Abby was teaching her some self-defense lessons.

Then there was Connor. A lovable goofball, who could become fully obsessed with whatever he was in love with. Especially an aforementioned, white-haired female that he shared a flat with. When Avery was not hanging out with Michael she could be seen studying or joking with Connor in the library. Connor was lonely after Tom's death, especially when Duncan dropped out of Uni and disappeared.

Avery was brought out of her thoughts when the object of her thought sat in front of her in the University's cafeteria. She sat in a booth against the window, enjoying a warm hazelnut hot chocolate and looking at the people in the courtyard rushing inside to escape the rain. The morning had started out quite chilly and she hoped it would clear up before the end of the day. She was planning to go with Stephen for a run at John's lake to check out locations near the anomaly for any thing they may have missed when the Ankylosaur's had come through.

"So, I was thinking perhaps after classes today we could go to the home office and see if they have had any mentions of another anomaly." Connor said leaning against the window, legs stretched before him on the blue cushion.

"Like I said you could join me and Stephen at the lake later. Get some exercise in."

"Na that's boring. Nothing has come through that anomaly in a week. I want to look for something new."

Avery sighed and sent him an annoyed look. "Connor, we have spent all week looking for another incursion, but nothing has turned up. If something pops up they'll let us know." Avery reached into her bag under the table and pulled out a stack of cue cards. "Anyway, we should be focusing on the exams, they don't stop because of the anomalies."

Connor groaned and banged his head on the table. "They would if they knew about them." He mumbled against the table.

"Yeah, well they don't. Come on, head up, and tell me what the five big mass extinctions in the earth's history are?"

* * *

"How's it going Connor?" Michael asked sitting next to Avery an hour later.

"Good. How about you? Computer still giving you trouble?" Connor replied shifting in his seat.

"No. You're a miracle worker." Soon a silence stretched between them. They got along, but Avery could not see them becoming friends. Michael had little to nothing in common with Connor. Michael was more confident and preferred to spend his time at the museum learning about history. Unlike her and Connor he was more interested in human history, rather than those of animals. She had met him at the museum, he was doing research on the evolution of historical weapons. She loved the passion he had towards his area of study.

What she found funny at the time was that he was largely against violence. Often, he would take her to protests outside the Uni during the weekends.

Not realizing Michael wanted to spend some time with Avery before he needed to go to class, Connor continued to sit there drumming absent mindlessly on the table. "That's good. I had to fix the processing speed on your laptop. You were overclocking it, so the computer had trouble working with a faster processing speed. It was an easy fix to be honest. I- Ow." Connor jerked back when Avery kicked him in the knee. "What was that for?"

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Avery said.

"No. And that bloody hurt. I know you do kickboxing lessons with Abby but I'm not a punching bag."

"Connor." Avery gestured with her head for him to leave. Connor blinked at her owlishly for a moment before looking between her and Michael.

He mouthed "Oh" and quickly got up almost falling of the bench as he picked up his bag. "I've got to head to class. I'll see you later Avery." He rushed off leaving the pair alone.

"He certainly is an interesting character." Michael said staring after him. He grabbed her hands, looking at her affectionately. He wondered where Avery had met before. He wondered if it had something to do with her mysterious work. This confused him more, what would the home office need from students studying prehistory. It didn't make sense.

"That's Connor for you. Smart, but dense. Especially with relationships. I see him pining after Abby, but he has no idea how to flatter her and not talk to her like one of his mates." She got this fond look on her face as if she was talking about a brother. That was another thing. To him they seemed to have known each other for years, yet he knew they had only met a couple of weeks ago.

"I heard his friend died, Tom, I think it was. They are saying he got hit by a car. Must have been devastating for him." Michael said.

Avery looked down at their hands solemnly. "Yeah I was there…" She paused and shook her head as if shaking off a memory, before looking back at him. He could see moisture building up in her eyes. She swallowed and continued. "… I was there when he found out about Tom. They were best friends and now he's gone, so has Duncan. He couldn't stay after Tom. Connor is alone now." Avery looked out into the rain. Michael followed her gaze and saw Connor walking across the courtyard, he was standing at the memorial set up for Tom under the decking of the opposite building. He was dripping wet and his fedora hung low on his head.

Soon he saw professor Cutter approach the man and lean down towards his ear. Connor looked at the professor and nodded, he allowed the older man to lead him away.

"It is ok to move on, just don't forget the ones you lost. They are still alive within a memory, just remember them as they were in life, not in death." He heard Avery whisper. She told him it was something her mother used to tell her at funerals.

Michael turned Avery towards him and allowed her to cry silently into his shoulder. Her tears turned his grey shirt darker then the sky outside.

 **A/N: Sorry for the downtrodden ending, not the best ending. But its necessary. Connor would have taken a while to move on. It would have affected everyone to see Tom die in front of them and Connor's breakdown. The next one will be a little more uplifting… hopefully.**

 **Guess who just learned she made Avery's boyfriend have almost the same name as Jenny's fiancé. Apparently, Jenny's fiancé's name is Michael Miller, while Avery's boyfriend is Michael Tiller. I have absolutely no idea how this happened, I swear I did not know the name of Jenny's fiancé. I might have learned the name a while ago and I guess it stuck. This is a weird coincidence, and I hope it doesn't happen again.**

 **Thanks to all those who have reviewed, I love writing this story and I can't believe how long it is despite not even being done with the first season.**


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